My Disney Birthday Wish Came True! – June 2025 Trip Report (Updated 7/25!)

[Mary Pops In]

Thank you!! I was really impressed with the merch at Ft. Wilderness, probably some of the more unique merchandise I've seen in a while. We had a lot of fun checking that all out.

I'm sad the barn was closed, I really wanted to check it out. I don't believe we ever saw the old location, but I may be wrong, there was a lot from our earlier trips that I don't remember!

I have not heard to the Ichabod Crain carriage rides, is that something you need to book in advance? That sounds so fun!

The Triple D barn used to be directly behind HDD. The white mini horses would be in an outside corral, and you could walk directly into the barn with the percherons. It was terrific being so close to the restaurants and not a bus ride away. The new barn is state of the art and the horses continue to be well cared for.

The spooky carriage ride had to be booked in advance. I hope it is still offered.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

I've only done Hoop once. I think maybe it was the wrong time/wrong people because there has never been a driving urge to go back. But I love that your mom found "her" piano player again.

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

I love that they made your night so fun!

 

[rdkeim]

You make me want to go back to Hoop! It's been many years. Last trip we stayed in the Ft. Wilderness cabins - very cool. You feel a million miles away from the craziness. What a huge smile on your Mom's face in the picture with Michael. Priceless.

 

[Wood Nymph]

We chatted a bit with Michael, and my mom told him the story about our trip in January to Jellyrolls, and shockingly, he remembered us. Not because we’re especially memorable or anything, but because that was the only time he played Pretty Woman there!

That was lucky to have Michael remember your mom.

This is Debbie, and she has no idea how old she is!”

HA!

I love it!

At the end of the show, before Michael left he asked us how we liked it and we told him how much we loved it. He then got a picture with my mom!

That's a cute picture. I think Michael enjoyed it as much as you and your mom did.

o we waited for the first bus to fill up, it was packed! Once that bus left, ours pulled in (it had been there, just waiting to move up), and unlike the bus to the parking lot, our bus was empty! It was only us and one other family! Score!

It was a quick drive back over to the WL, and soon we were back in our room enjoying some wine to wind down before going to bed.

We ended up taking the bus back to WL lodge, too. I think there were less than ten of us on the bus.

 

[piglet1979]

This is something that I have always wanted to do but it seems to never fit into the schedule.

 

[VAtink]

Good morning everyone! Popping in with a quick RL update. This morning was our booking day for our ADRs, and it mostly went smoothly except for Geo-82. Wow, that is a hard one to grab! We had originally wanted to book the fireworks experience there, and I had a feeling it would be a tough one so did that one right at 6:00, and at first it showed availability and even said it was holding my reservation for 10 minutes, which yay, we got it!

Well, Disney pulled a fast one on me and even though it showed that it was holding the reservation for 10 minutes, when I clicked next it suddenly said the reservation is no longer available! WHAT?!?! and NOOOOOOOO! So I guess congrats to whoever swooped in and grabbed that from us by hitting next a fraction of a second faster than me!

So then I figured I'd try to just get regular reservations for around the fireworks time that night, but of course the latest reservation they had was 6:00, and the fireworks aren't until 9:00. So yeah, even at 60+6, Geo-82 is hard to get! Good to know. Will have to try again in December when we have a longer trip and try to get it at the very end of the trip.

Everything else went smoothly though, we are even trying something completely new this year, the La Cava Experience! I'm excited to try that one, it sounds a lot like the Tequila lunch they used to do with F&W, just with less food, so it'll be interesting to compare.

 

[VAtink]

The Triple D barn used to be directly behind HDD. The white mini horses would be in an outside corral, and you could walk directly into the barn with the percherons. It was terrific being so close to the restaurants and not a bus ride away. The new barn is state of the art and the horses continue to be well cared for.

Oh wow! I really do need to make a trip back out there when the barn is open, I grew up by a Mega Clydesdale farm and used to love visiting with the horses. Sometimes we even got to help with them, which as a kid was amazing, I've loved horses ever since!

The spooky carriage ride had to be booked in advance. I hope it is still offered.

Good to know! I'll look into this more, this sounds so cool!

 

[VAtink]

I've only done Hoop once. I think maybe it was the wrong time/wrong people because there has never been a driving urge to go back. But I love that your mom found "her" piano player again.

I feel like the crowd also makes a big impact on how "fun" the show is. We had some characters in the audience who the cast kept interacting with which made it really funny.

I'm so happy my mom got to sit next to Michael and interact with him all night. He's actually doing a bunch of stuff around Disney World and the Orlando area, apparently he'll be in Epcot for something in September so my mom has already insisted we go to whatever it is!

 

[VAtink]

I love that they made your night so fun!

It was such a blast! I never really thought of Hoop as a must do, but now we can't wait to be back!

 

[VAtink]

You make me want to go back to Hoop! It's been many years. Last trip we stayed in the Ft. Wilderness cabins - very cool. You feel a million miles away from the craziness. What a huge smile on your Mom's face in the picture with Michael. Priceless.

Haha, yeah, it is such a fun show! That feeling like a million miles away from the craziness is such a selling point for the cabins, that sounds so perfect. After a crazy day in the parks, just being in nature and in your own space sounds like perfection!

I don't think my mom will ever stop talking about how amazing it was to sit next to Michael, definitely made her night (maybe even her trip! ).

 

[VAtink]

That was lucky to have Michael remember your mom.

I'm really surprised, but my mom was thrilled!

I love it!

That was so funny! Didn't expect her to go that direction!

That's a cute picture. I think Michael enjoyed it as much as you and your mom did.

Thanks! I can't believe how much he interacted with us during the show, it definitely added to the enjoyment of the night, hopefully for him too!

We ended up taking the bus back to WL lodge, too. I think there were less than ten of us on the bus.

That was shocking how empty the bus back to WL was! Shocking, but really really nice!

 

[VAtink]

This is something that I have always wanted to do but it seems to never fit into the schedule.

I hear you, we had talked about doing this for years, but it always seemed so out of the way and like it would take too much time to even bother getting to. I'm happy we finally went, it definitely helped staying right "next door" at WL, and I think having the late show also helped since we could do a full day of activities beforehand.

 

[VAtink]

Day 4, Part 1: Getting a NASCAR Driver to Animal Kingdom!​

We woke up nice and early this morning, it was finally a park day! It was a bit odd being there for 3 days and only have gone to HS for an hour to see Muppets.

We got up a bit before 6 and quickly got ready, then made our way down to the bus stop.

We got to the bus stop a bit before 6:30, but the next bus arrival time wasn’t until 7:06! Why is it every time we go to AK first thing in the morning the bus is delayed?? This happens so often for us when we’re going to the AK!

Since the park was supposed to open at 7:30 for early entry (spoiler, this changed sometime the previous few days), I wanted to get there earlier, so tried getting a Minnie Van, and managed to get one immediately, and he was already almost there! Like 5 minutes away. So we quickly made our way up to the front entrance to meet him.

This time we had Bob as our driver, and he was awesome! He was one of the “founders” of Minnie Van, and my favorite thing, he’s a NASCAR driver! He actually used to be one of the drivers/instructors at the Richard Petty driving experience at Disney! When they closed that they asked him to help start up the Minnie Van Service. How cool!

Needless to say, it was a very quick trip to AK.

Ok, he didn’t really speed, they actually monitor the cars to make sure they don’t, but he did let us know there are some areas the monitoring doesn’t work so he can go a bit faster there if he needs to.

We got to AK right around 7 and quickly made our way in, after a quick photopass picture of course!

​

When we got to the tapstiles, I was surprised to see that the park had already opened, so it was a quick entrance and soon we were in front of this beauty!





We also saw Dug was roaming at that point, and since he’s my favorite, I had to meet him!



Mickey and Minnie were also roaming, but we didn’t stop for them, we had rides to finally get to!

We made our way back to EE, and were shocked to see it already running, and trains full of people! It was only like 7:15 at this point, what!?!? Yeah, it turns out in the days since I had noted the early entry times in our schedule (like a week before the trip), Disney changed EE to 7:00! Lesson learned, always check the day before if the opening times changed!

Thankfully even though we were late for early entry, Everest was still a walk-on!



By the time we got off EE, it was time for our LLSP for FoP, so we headed over there.

Next up: A Morning of Perfect Timing!​

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I didn't wind up visiting that day but set one of those reservation alerts for GEO-82 (regular reservation not the package) and got multiple alerts in the week and especially day prior. So don't give up!

 

[VAtink]

I didn't wind up visiting that day but set one of those reservation alerts for GEO-82 (regular reservation not the package) and got multiple alerts in the week and especially day prior. So don't give up!

Thanks! I set an alert with ***********, hopefully I can get a later reservation! I was able to snag one for 6:45, but the fireworks aren't until 9 I think so I'd prefer it to be a bit later.

 

[Wood Nymph]

This time we had Bob as our driver, and he was awesome! He was one of the “founders” of Minnie Van, and my favorite thing, he’s a NASCAR driver! He actually used to be one of the drivers/instructors at the Richard Petty driving experience at Disney! When they closed that they asked him to help start up the Minnie Van Service. How cool!

That is really cool! He must have known tons of interesting stuff.

We made our way back to EE, and were shocked to see it already running, and trains full of people! It was only like 7:15 at this point, what!?!? Yeah, it turns out in the days since I had noted the early entry times in our schedule (like a week before the trip), Disney changed EE to 7:00! Lesson learned, always check the day before if the opening times changed!

We've gotten surprised like this, too. There are so many things you need to plan ahead of time that gets messed up when Disney changes it.

 

[VAtink]

That is really cool! He must have known tons of interesting stuff.

Oh he was awesome! He was one of the drivers that made us not want to get out of the car when we arrived at our destination. We could have chatted with him for hours!

We've gotten surprised like this, too. There are so many things you need to plan ahead of time that gets messed up when Disney changes it.

I was so shocked! Definitely didn't expect a last minute change like that, but at least it didn't impact our touring that morning.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

I love the Everest picture. Looks like your entire train wanted a cool photo!!!

 

[Paulaparm]

Just got all caught up here. So glad you enjoyed Hoop Dee Doo! We love that show and have done it our last 3 trips (our trips are usually 3 years apart). When we were there in January we had a table in the middle of the floor and when we checked in, she said, Oh, you have a fun table! The host said the same thing when she took us to the table. We wondered what they meant and found out when they held hands and circled our table while they sang a song. It was fun!