My Disney Birthday Wish Came True! – June 2025 Trip Report (Updated 9/5!)

[VAtink]

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!

We LOVED Hoop! This is definitely going to be a repeat for us. That sounds like such a fun table that you got!

 

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Day 4, Part 2: A Morning of Perfect Timing!​

We last left off heading to our first LL of the day, FoP!

On the way I saw this and for a hot second thought it was real and almost had a full on panic attack!



It was a short wait in the LL, and soon we were flying!

After the ride, we stopped to get pictures in Pandora.

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While waiting, a mom and daughter came up to ask if I could snap a picture of them, and the girl was so sweet, she was gushing about how this was her first trip to Disney and how much fun she was having. Just the best energy and totally warmed my heart, I love seeing people experiencing Disney for the first time! I hope they had the most amazing trip!

After getting our pictures we made our way over to the Safari for our next LL. This time I did something I never do, I requested the back row, noting I’m happy to wait, but the CM was great and just said, “You don’t even have to wait, it’s yours!” and pointed us to it. Bonus, we had the whole row to ourselves!

I love the back row, it’s so nice to be able to turn around to get pictures and just see the animals for a bit longer.

The safari this time was great, one of the best ones I’ve been on, and our driver I swear must have been a skipper at the Jungle Cruise, she was hilarious and kept making JC type jokes.















Next up: Even More Perfect Timing!​

 

[HappyGal]

OMGosh! Getting the last row on the safari has got to be the best thing I’ve learned in I don’t know how long! Pure genius! Thanks for the tip!

 

[Wood Nymph]

I love the back row, it’s so nice to be able to turn around to get pictures and just see the animals for a bit longer.

We were in the back row once and the view is great. You get a new view of what is behind you. But the ride is rougher, and I get nauseous from the bouncing.

The safari this time was great, one of the best ones I’ve been on, and our driver I swear must have been a skipper at the Jungle Cruise, she was hilarious and kept making JC type jokes.

We had a CM do something like this on the safari and it was the best ride we ever had.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I think the safari is my favorite attraction in all of WDW. It's different every time and I've always loved animals. We've had many great drivers but had one absolutely phenomenal driver (it's years ago now) and we're forever hoping we'll get him again. We encountered some mating activity, and he was so hysterical in his comments that went over kids' heads but had the adults rolling. So far, we haven't been lucky enough to ride with him again, but we cross our fingers every time in eternal hope. Back row definitely great for photos but bumpy!

 

[Araminta18]

How awesome! I love it when that lines up - you get the row you want without even having to wait. Brilliant.

 

[VAtink]

OMGosh! Getting the last row on the safari has got to be the best thing I’ve learned in I don’t know how long! Pure genius! Thanks for the tip!

It is so great! I learned it from a CM, and it is really the best tip!

 

[VAtink]

We were in the back row once and the view is great. You get a new view of what is behind you. But the ride is rougher, and I get nauseous from the bouncing.

Yeah, the view back there is fantastic! Fortunately the extra bumpiness didn't bother us, but I can see it being bad for others!

We had a CM do something like this on the safari and it was the best ride we ever had.

Yes! Our driver was so funny, it was one of the best safaris we've ever been on!

 

[VAtink]

I think the safari is my favorite attraction in all of WDW. It's different every time and I've always loved animals. We've had many great drivers but had one absolutely phenomenal driver (it's years ago now) and we're forever hoping we'll get him again. We encountered some mating activity, and he was so hysterical in his comments that went over kids' heads but had the adults rolling. So far, we haven't been lucky enough to ride with him again, but we cross our fingers every time in eternal hope. Back row definitely great for photos but bumpy!

It really is such a great ride. That is hilarious about your ride, that would have been a fun one to be on!

 

[VAtink]

How awesome! I love it when that lines up - you get the row you want without even having to wait. Brilliant.

Right? We had the most amazing timing this morning!

 

[VAtink]

Afternoon everyone, just popping in with a quick RL update! So a few weeks ago I had tried to book GEO-82 for the fireworks, either the fireworks package, or just a later seating to be there for the fireworks. Well, the latest I could get on my day was 6:45, so not the best time. Well, I had signed up for a dining alert, and today it came through! Sorta.

So at 3:50 I got an alert that later times were available, so I got to check and sure enough they are! So I select a later time, but to continue on with the booking, they asked me to sign in. No biggie right? Nope! It took forever to sign in because, well, Disney IT is horrible. It kept saying my password was wrong over and over and over again. It took like 30 tries for it to finally go through, and of course by then, all the late times were gone! NOOOOOO!!!!!! I seriously have a bone to pick with Disney IT at this point.

Anyways, just before I was going to admit defeat, I remembered a trick I used to use all the time for hard to get reservations, but totally forgot about since, well, reservations haven't been hard to get in recent years. Remember when BoG was impossible to get?!?!? Ah, memories.

But I digress. Anyways, the "trick" is an oldie but goodie, book it for a different party size, then modify! So I checked for a party of 3, and sure enough, tons of times available later in the evening! So I booked an 8:20 reservation, which I hope will be great timing for the 9:00 fireworks. Then after getting it booked, I went in and just modified it back to a party of two! Easy peasy. I can't believe I almost forgot about this trick!

Also, I'm very curious as to why Geo-82 suddenly had a huge dump of inventory today. Like a few weeks ago when I tried booking, there was hardly anything past 5:00pm for parties of 2, 3, or 4, but today there was suddenly a ton of availability for them (for a few minutes at least). Does Disney hold back reservations for this place? I was thinking perhaps a large group/convention cancelled a group booking there our night, but I noticed all of September was suddenly showing up all green with reservations available while prior to this afternoon there were hardly any days showing up green. Just a bit odd, but whatever, I'm happy we got a later time!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Congrats on getting GEO-82! Pure speculation but the only thing I can think of is that they were initially conservative in their release of reservations until they had better data on how long guests were tending to stay. I hope you enjoy. The peach whiskey smash was my favorite drink, and I really loved the hummus.

 

[Wood Nymph]

I had signed up for a dining alert, and today it came through! Sorta.

I think my success rate for being able to book the reservation is pretty low. Most of the time the reservation is gone by the time I read the alert. I've stopped using the system.

But your trick is great and you managed to get a perfect time.

 

[VAtink]

Congrats on getting GEO-82! Pure speculation but the only thing I can think of is that they were initially conservative in their release of reservations until they had better data on how long guests were tending to stay. I hope you enjoy. The peach whiskey smash was my favorite drink, and I really loved the hummus.

Thank you! Oh maybe, that would make sense. I was surprised to see so much availability suddenly, but not complaining! Ohhh, I haven't even looked at the drink list yet, but that sounds good!

 

[VAtink]

I think my success rate for being able to book the reservation is pretty low. Most of the time the reservation is gone by the time I read the alert. I've stopped using the system.

Yeah, it seems like 99% of the time the alert comes in while I'm in the office so I don't see it until I'm home later in the day and by then it's gone. It is nice though when the alert actually comes in at a good time!

But your trick is great and you managed to get a perfect time.

Yeah, I used to use that trick all the time, but lately it's been so easy to get reservations I haven't needed to. Glad it still works!

 

[VAtink]

Day 4, Part 3: Even More Perfect Timing!​

It was a bit before 9:00 when we got off the Safari, so time for our next LL, Dinosaur! While I hate running around the park, we did have amazing timing this morning with our LL just hopping from one to the next.

Dinosaur had a big line, even in the LL. The posted wait was 25 minutes, but in the LL we waited about 30 until we got to the preshow room. Although I suspect the LL and standby waits may have been similar, the lines were roughly the same length, and the CM wasn’t controlling the flow into the preshow room, so basically it was just two standby lines.

The ride was fun as always, I’m going to miss this one, but I am kind of excited for Indy.



When we got off it was a bit before 10:00, so time for our next LL, Everest! On the way we took some pictures around Dinoland.

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We made the short commute over to Asia and scanned into the LL for EE. There was zero wait, and soon we were on!



It was only 10:02 when we got off, so we had a lot of time before out lunch reservation, so we decided to visit the Maharaja Jungle trek, I had hoped to see baby Bakso (although I guess he’s not quite a baby anymore). Plus, we love hanging out in the aviary there.

Sadly Bakso and his mom were hiding in the shade so we couldn’t see them, but we did see another adult tiger making his (I think it was a male) rounds and roaring!





We then made our way to the aviary where we found our favorite bench and sat for a while to enjoy the birds.





We didn’t last long in the aviary this day, we were not acclimated to the heat yet coming from much colder places, and it was HOT. So after only a few minutes we decided to move on. We discussed what we wanted to do and settled on joining the walk-up list for Nomad to grab a drink before our lunch reservation.

Next up: Nomad!​

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Relaxing in the aviary?? I'm so terrified of birds I can't even go in!! I love watching the tigers. I wish there were more / less crowded viewing areas. I'm very curious to what they do with the Dinoland area.

 

[KPeterso]

Relaxing in the aviary?? I'm so terrified of birds I can't even go in!! I love watching the tigers. I wish there were more / less crowded viewing areas. I'm very curious to what they do with the Dinoland area.

I am with you. I bypass the aviary every single time!

 

[Wood Nymph]

The two ride pictures turned out to be really cute. I think that is hard to pre=plan.

Dinosaur had a big line, even in the LL. The posted wait was 25 minutes, but in the LL we waited about 30 until we got to the preshow room.

I would be a little disappointed if the LL turned out to be 30 minutes.

We never seem to have good luck seeing the tigers. They must have really good hiding places.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

I hate when they don't deal with loading the preshow at Dinosaur correctly. What's the point of LL then?