She's Raising The Bar, a June 2025 Copper Creek Trip Report (Updated 6/29)

[footballmouse]

We did the After Hours last July and we have tickets again for this August. I loved the little to no lines. We went at 4:00 so we could see the shows since they were part of the party. Glad you liked it.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Looks like a great trip so far! Those after hours parties are amazing and well worth the money. We did one at MK on our trip a few months ago and it was so cool to have the empty park to ourselves. Your pics of the empty DHS are awesome. And you got a lot of big rides done. Poor Marshall looked so beat! Hopefully you all got to sleep in a bit the next day. And props to him for riding Rockin roller coaster. That’s an intense coaster.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We did the After Hours last July and we have tickets again for this August. I loved the little to no lines. We went at 4:00 so we could see the shows since they were part of the party. Glad you liked it.

The party was great. Since we were buying individual park tickets, we chose to save a day of tickets by going with the party instead, and it helped justify the cost.

Looks like a great trip so far! Those after hours parties are amazing and well worth the money. We did one at MK on our trip a few months ago and it was so cool to have the empty park to ourselves. Your pics of the empty DHS are awesome. And you got a lot of big rides done. Poor Marshall looked so beat! Hopefully you all got to sleep in a bit the next day. And props to him for riding Rockin roller coaster. That’s an intense coaster.

It's funny, Marshall was more worried about the time standing in line hurting his feet than he was riding the roller coaster. He's pretty adventurous. It was great to see the park so empty, and to have it be cool outside while we were there.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

On Thursday, I slept in and got up about 6:20. I left the room about 6"40 and went to take some pictures and see how the sunrise was. It was harder to get shots without people in the lobby, but having more light coming in the windows was kinda cool.



Then I went down to Roaring Fork for a mug refill then to Geyser Point. I caught the 7:00 Geyser from Geyser Point but the trees blocked most of it.



I walked around by the North side cabins befoire another mug refill and making my way up to the lobby.


Then I sat on the balcony for a bit before waking Melissa up at 7:30. After the late night the neight before I thought we might go later, but she wanted to try for 7:30 to get a little closer to rope drop.

Truth be told I mostly wanted a closer parking spot.

Lol, that's fair. The kids lacked the motivation and were not moving quickly. Eventually I ordered breakfast and that got them moving.

It was tough getting started after such a late night but we didn’t really need to rope drop to get the stuff done that we wanted to. We had a Guardian’s Single Pass for 10:50 so that was our real deadline. Well after park open. I feel like we set up these two first days perfectly.

It worked out really well. I picked up breakfast at 8:10 which got the kids up and moving.



We ate at the table in the room and then got ready and made it out by 8:57. We made the short drive to Epcot and were parked in a nice spot, through security, and into the park by 9:24.



The one bedroom room is so great for us with this table, we actually eat breakfast at it most mornings. I think we’re pretty spoiled but it’d be pretty hard to do the same trip without this space. Anyway, our first stop after we made it through the gates we headed over to the Land Pavilion to ride my favorite ride.


I had to deal with some work emails and a call on the way over there, but it was all good by the time we went inside and downstairs to Living With The Land, which showed a 5 minute wait.


We enjoyed our first boat cruise of the day.


Work has its ups and downs. We decided not to wait for Soarin’ and headed over to the Seas. Allie is still terrified of the Nemo ride so we just went through the exit to check out the aquarium portion.


We don't always go hang out in the seas, but always enjoy it when we do. We checked out the Manatees and the Sharks in the big tank. It was a fun little trip. After that we continued the water theme and went across to Moana.



Even though we have big kids they really enjoy this area. They would both spend way more time here if we let them. It really is a great addition to the park. I think we would have planned a half day here when the kids were tiny.



They did love it, and it is a nice addition to the park.


We considered Spaceship Earth next, but it was still pretty busy so we continued on towards Guardians.


It was almost time for our Lightning Lane so we headed that way. We did stop for a bathroom break first because we weren’t sure how long the wait would be.

We found the closest ones were in the big Connections Eatery, which we had never been to before. Then we got in line to try Guardians for only our second time ever. We got in line at 10:55, and the standby line showed 105 minutes with a lot of it being outside.



The lightning lane was definitely worth it, and it was once again a wonderful ride. Our song this time was I Ran.


This rollercoaster is so creative. It is so fun and we all love it.

After this Paul was on a mission.

I had a plan for a dessert item that I got last time, and it was nearby. We went into Club Cool and I got a Diet Coke Float.


We all tried some drink samples, but Allie's beverage choice was Starbucks. We sat at a table in the Connections Cafe while she went to get in line for it. I was able to go get a stroller rental and get back with it before she got her drink.

I went classic with a root beer float, more ice cream, less float. The cast member that made it did a great job. He also happened to be from the same college that Paul went to.

They said their zot’s

That's an obscure UC Irvine reference, since our mascot is the Anteater, and our battle cry is zot. Yep, you can't make this stuff up. Anyway, we decided that Marshall would enjoy his day more if he didn't have to walk and stand the whole time, so he agreed to rent a stroller. We also had been looking at lunch options, and saw that there were some table service choices with availability, so we figured we would pop in somewhere for a nice cool break later.

Our plan was just to cruise World Showcase and see where the rest of the day took us. We did have dinner reservations later and not at Epcot but we had a ton of time free for the rest of the day.


Our first stop after our break in the Connections building were the restrooms by first aid and the baby care station. Allie and I found this cute towel duck family hanging out.


We started our official tour of World Showcase with Mexico, and we went inside to check out our Caballero buddies.


Allie was excited to get some shots in here, and had her digital camera out.

And that’s when tragedy struck. On her entrance to the boat her camera fell and did a little back flip and perfect ten splash less plop into the water.


Yep, it took a splash right from the front row of the boat into the Mexican river. Fortunately the water was clean, but the camera was not accessible. We let the ride attendant know, but there wasn't anything they could do then and said they would look once the boats were out of the way.


Allie was so sad. We promised on the ride we’d do what we could to make it right, it was obviously an accident. By the time we got off the boat there was a different cast member there to greet us. He said that they could see the camera, that it was still on and he’d already let maintenance know that it was there. We filled out a lost item report with all of the information they’d need to get us back the camera.

It was pretty impressive, they had someone there waiting for us and knew which boat we were on. While we were pretty sure the camera would not have survived the soaking, we were hoping to get the memory card back so we didn't loose the pictures she had taken. Fortunately I later learned she had transferred most of them, so the loss wasn't huge, but she was really upset about not getting to take any more of her snapshots the rest of the trip. We checked Target for something we could go pick up, but nothing looked good.


We then remembered that she had gotten the camera from Aamzon, and when we checked we could get one delivered to the resort the next day. I spent the $40 and that helped turn Allie's mood around before we continued on in World Showcase.


Gotta love Amazon. We continued through world showcase and over to Norway. Geir Ness was in the shop signing perfume bottles which was pretty neat. We didn’t find anything we couldn’t live without though and headed on to the next country.


They did have some cool light up ears, but like the fancy Helly Hanson jackets we left them for another time. We then checked out China, where the line was too long for the Quick Serve, and eating outside had no appeal. We did check out the store but found that the AC was not working well, so we didn't shop nearly as much as usual there.


Marshall did find a rubix cube display which he would have gladly stood at for hours but the rest of us were starting to get hungry.

Check out our lunch destination in our next update, where we try a Table Service that we have often considered but never visited before...

 

[SimplyGoofy]

I’m in for another of your great reports! As always, your pictures are excellent!

I agree 100% that First Class improves your travel experience. We tried first class for the first time this month and it was so nice. It was great to use the premiere lane to check in, board early and relax while others boarded, get off the plane first, and get our bags before everyone else (we beat the crowd to the car rental counters!). I’m sure we won’t do it every time, but it would be fun to do again.

I tried The Boathouse for the first time on our last trip and it was quite tasty! I’m glad you had another good experience.

I also tried an After Hours (at MK) for the first time and LOVED it. It was amazing to walk right on to most rides. I’d love to do it again with my girls when they’re older. I’m glad your AH experience worked so well for you!

I’ve only ever ridden Guardians with a a lightning lane and don’t think I’d do it another way. The ride takes such a long time even with a short line (so many pre-shows!) that I think I’d lose my mind if I had to wait in the standby lane.

 

[Wood Nymph]

The one bedroom room is so great for us with this table, we actually eat breakfast at it most mornings. I think we’re pretty spoiled but it’d be pretty hard to do the same trip without this space.

The villas are great. It is a good thing you bought DVC at Copper Creek.

The regular WL resort rooms have two small stack tables instead of a real table or desk. It works for two people but would be tough to feed breakfast to a family of four.

They did love it, and it is a nice addition to the park.

We stopped at Moana after dinner at San Angel Inn. The area wasn't crowded, and we could play with all the water features without any kids around.

The lightning lane was definitely worth it, and it was once again a wonderful ride. Our song this time was I Ran.

The lightening lane is totally worth it. I don't do the ride, but the queue is interesting.

I went classic with a root beer float, more ice cream, less float. The cast member that made it did a great job. He also happened to be from the same college that Paul went to.

Root Beer float is my favorite, too. I never thought of asking for more ice cream.

we decided that Marshall would enjoy his day more if he didn't have to walk and stand the whole time, so he agreed to rent a stroller.

Epcot requires a lot of walking. And the WS gets really hot in sunny weather.

It was pretty impressive, they had someone there waiting for us and knew which boat we were on. While we were pretty sure the camera would not have survived the soaking, we were hoping to get the memory card back so we didn't loose the pictures she had taken. Fortunately I later learned she had transferred most of them, so the loss wasn't huge, but she was really upset about not getting to take any more of her snapshots the rest of the trip. We checked Target for something we could go pick up, but nothing looked good.

Poor Allie. She was really enjoying her camera. At least Amazon could deliver the next day.

I had my backpack fall off the WL launch when we were returning to MK after lunch at Geyser Point. My husband noticed that I didn't have the backpack when we arrived at the MK boat dock. I ran back to the launch and was able to return to Geyser Point right away. They didn't have the backpack, either. Then I got a phone call from the CR. They had fished the backpack out of the water. I have a feeling that it fell off the boat in the canal between Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon. My sister-in-law remembered seeing a guy on the security patrol boat looking at something in the water. I would love to know the story about how they found the backpack.

I took the AK bus from WL to the Contemporary. They had my very wet backpack. The only important thing in there was my husband's insulin, which was fine. Everything else was washable or not important. My purse and phone were with me, not in the backpack. I was exceedingly grateful to whoever fished my backpack out of the lake. And the staff at CR could not have been nicer.

 

[KPeterso]

I did not know the Zots thing from UC Irvine. That is right where I live. Irvine and right down the road from the University! I looked at UCI for school and knew they were the anteaters, but ended up going to a very different type of school on the other side of the country.

Glad you were able to order Allie a new camera to replace the one that tumbled in the water. Recently at disneyland, I was confused why the boat was not moving up after the previous boat left the load station. Then I see the cast members with a long grabbing tool and they were fishing someone's phone out of the boast. Probably similar to Allie's where it fell in when someone was getting out. They did get it out, but no idea how it was working.

 

[Disney102015]

The one bedroom room is so great for us with this table, we actually eat breakfast at it most mornings

Everyone told us it’d be hard to go back to a studio after experiencing all the space of a 1 bedroom. Well, we did a 1 bedroom last year (booking last minute, it was all that was available) and it wasn’t the extra space that sold me - it was the table!! Having space to cut up Mickey waffles and have the kids eat, instead of trying not to get syrup on the bed, was a game changer! Who knew??

Looks like you’re having a great trip! Can I ask why Allie is scared of Nemo? I always find it fascinating the random things that can scare kids (and, the things I expect to scare them that don’t phase them at all!)

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

Really enjoying your trip report so far

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I’m in for another of your great reports! As always, your pictures are excellent!

Welcome back, we hope this is a good one too.

I agree 100% that First Class improves your travel experience. We tried first class for the first time this month and it was so nice. It was great to use the premiere lane to check in, board early and relax while others boarded, get off the plane first, and get our bags before everyone else (we beat the crowd to the car rental counters!). I’m sure we won’t do it every time, but it would be fun to do again.

That’s the thing, it is kind of addicting. I shop a lot harder trying to find first class flights now, even for work trips.

I tried The Boathouse for the first time on our last trip and it was quite tasty! I’m glad you had another good experience.

It is one of our favorites, and tends to be a decent deal too because you don’t have to buy the most expensive options to get a great meal.

I also tried an After Hours (at MK) for the first time and LOVED it. It was amazing to walk right on to most rides. I’d love to do it again with my girls when they’re older. I’m glad your AH experience worked so well for you!

We never had done any kind of extra paid party thing before, even after a bunch of September trips when MNSSHP was going on. It really was fun and a great way to cover a whole park quickly.

I’ve only ever ridden Guardians with a a lightning lane and don’t think I’d do it another way. The ride takes such a long time even with a short line (so many pre-shows!) that I think I’d lose my mind if I had to wait in the standby lane.

That’s true, it is a long experience even without standing outside for an hour or more first.

The villas are great. It is a good thing you bought DVC at Copper Creek.

We love it, and like many DVC members we just want more points…

The regular WL resort rooms have two small stack tables instead of a real table or desk. It works for two people but would be tough to feed breakfast to a family of four.

The big table is great and we really get a lot of use out of it. We left Allie’s sofa bed out all the time, so the table was our seating location.

We stopped at Moana after dinner at San Angel Inn. The area wasn't crowded, and we could play with all the water features without any kids around.

The fun, and a rare opportunity to explore it quietly.

The lightening lane is totally worth it. I don't do the ride, but the queue is interesting.

It is an immersive storytelling adventure, followed by a great roller coaster.

Root Beer float is my favorite, too. I never thought of asking for more ice cream.

They can decide how far to fill up the cup, and she liked how it turned out.

Epcot requires a lot of walking. And the WS gets really hot in sunny weather.

We knew there would be a lot of walking and standing as we shopped around WS, and this helped his feet out.

Poor Allie. She was really enjoying her camera. At least Amazon could deliver the next day.

It was crazy to be “those people” who lost stuff into the water but we recovered from it.

I had my backpack fall off the WL launch when we were returning to MK after lunch at Geyser Point. My husband noticed that I didn't have the backpack when we arrived at the MK boat dock. I ran back to the launch and was able to return to Geyser Point right away. They didn't have the backpack, either. Then I got a phone call from the CR. They had fished the backpack out of the water. I have a feeling that it fell off the boat in the canal between Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon. My sister-in-law remembered seeing a guy on the security patrol boat looking at something in the water. I would love to know the story about how they found the backpack.

I took the AK bus from WL to the Contemporary. They had my very wet backpack. The only important thing in there was my husband's insulin, which was fine. Everything else was washable or not important. My purse and phone were with me, not in the backpack. I was exceedingly grateful to whoever fished my backpack out of the lake. And the staff at CR could not have been nicer.

That is a crazy story! I wonder how long it floated around before they caught it. It was great that the CR cast members were so helpful. Great call taking the AK bus to get there quickly. Loosing insulin would have been a bummer, but being a little wet is just fine. Great recovery.

I did not know the Zots thing from UC Irvine. That is right where I live. Irvine and right down the road from the University! I looked at UCI for school and knew they were the anteaters, but ended up going to a very different type of school on the other side of the country.

It goes back to the old BC comics even before my time. I got to live at UCI from 1998-2004 while I was in school there. It was a nice place to go to school, and just the right distance from home for me so I could go home on weekends.

Glad you were able to order Allie a new camera to replace the one that tumbled in the water. Recently at disneyland, I was confused why the boat was not moving up after the previous boat left the load station. Then I see the cast members with a long grabbing tool and they were fishing someone's phone out of the boast. Probably similar to Allie's where it fell in when someone was getting out. They did get it out, but no idea how it was working.

Yeah they explained that they would have to have maintenance staff recover it over night, so we knew it would get a thorough soaking. I guess they don’t have a grabbing tool to get stuff out easily at this one.

Everyone told us it’d be hard to go back to a studio after experiencing all the space of a 1 bedroom. Well, we did a 1 bedroom last year (booking last minute, it was all that was available) and it wasn’t the extra space that sold me - it was the table!! Having space to cut up Mickey waffles and have the kids eat, instead of trying not to get syrup on the bed, was a game changer! Who knew??

Everyone says that you will have a hard time going to a studio after a bigger room. For us the laundry is huge, but yes the table is a great feature. We don’t tend to cook in the room, but having a place to sit and eat together is awesome.

Looks like you’re having a great trip! Can I ask why Allie is scared of Nemo? I always find it fascinating the random things that can scare kids (and, the things I expect to scare them that don’t phase them at all!)

That is a great question. We asked her, and she said it is just so scary. She does not like jump scares at all (which explains why she does not like Soarin) and she feels like the fish are just way too close on the ride. She used to freak out about it as a kid, and it just got easier once we figured out to skip the ride.

Really enjoying your trip report so far

Thanks, we really enjoy sharing it and having a record of the trips for the future.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

When we left off we were touring World Showcase but ready for some air conditioned lunch. Our next stop was Germany, where we walked right up to the counter for Biergarten and found they had availability.


This is one restaurant we had considered for years but just had never made it to before, so it looked like today was the day. They did warn us about the price, but the AC looked really good and I was ready for the best of the 'wurst.

We had about a 15 minute wait for a table, which was a little surprising considering how quiet the restaurant was and the fact it was a buffet.

They never texted so maybe there was a mix-up there, or maybe they were building the suspense or setting the timing for the stage show... Either way, we soon were led in to a table making us about the 5th or 6th family in the restaurant. An authentic German waitress introduced us to the restaurant and told us about the items on the buffet.

Our waitress was so cute. She was really sweet and asked us where we were from. When we said Southern California her eyes lit up and she said “that’s the dream”.

We talked about how glad we are that the international people are back in Epcot. It adds some fun and real authenticity to the park, and this waitress fit the role perfectly. We followed her advice and checked out the buffet.


There were quite a few salads, but when we got to the main course I was surprised to see only two kinds of sausage. My favorite food item from the buffet was the pretzel rolls.

I think the best thing on the buffet was the apple strudel but honestly the whole experience was just lack luster.


The band was pretty cute but the food wasn’t our favorite.


Granted, we are not the biggest Buffet fans, especially you, but I honestly had higher expectations for this one. When you factor in the price, it becomes one meal that we likely will not repeat anytime soon. At least we tried it.

It for sure satisfied our curiosity and I swear I’ve talked to people who’ve loved it but it just isn’t for us. It was a nice place with AC and Diet Coke though so there’s that.

Yes, and those factors were exactly what we needed on a hot rainless afternoon. We finished up lunch at 2:45 and continued making our way around World Showcase. Our next stop was the America Pavilion where we checked out the art store.

And then immediately remembered the BBQ quick service restaurant which also would have been perfect for lunch. Sigh… Next time.

We didn’t find anything that we liked anymore than the carousel horses we had seen at Disney Springs.

We continued on to the Japan store, where we surprisingly didn't find anything.


Actually the kids wanted Mochi but I think we both said not to that and didn't get much push back.

Marshall did ask for mochi and I said no. We buy it every year and then end up throwing most of it away.

Then Allie cruised through France for some photos and a bit of shopping.


We were too full for a snack so we continued on. We considered visiting Beach Club but decided to save the time and keep moving through Epcot.

The kids did check out the pin board in France but I don’t think either traded. Pin trading was really big for both of them this year and it was kinda fun.


Allie had given Marshall all of her old pins, but then she got into collecting aand trading for new ones during this trip. It was one of the rare things they both really enjoyed, so it was fun for all of us.

Our next stop was the UK pavilion. They had some cute corgi Christmas ornaments so we bought one of those for our dog sitter. We have two corgis and she is their breeder, I think she has 6 corgis right now so it’s always fun to find something corgi for her. I also got a reusable shopping bag with highland cows on it.


It was great to find the Corgi ornament, even though checking out took forever because some guy was arguing over how much his Castmember discount should have been. Kinda not a good look for Disney, but it was not the real CMs fault. We then finished our loop of World Showcase in Canada where we got some cold Diet Cokes and Power Ade for the kids.

I can’t believe we did the whole of World Showcase in one go. We rarely do that.

We didn't get distracted by popping out of the park. We shopped as we made our way towards Spaceship Earth.


The line was much shorter so we decided to ride Spaceship Earth on the way out of the park.


It was fun as always, although I might have napped just a little. After that we dropped off the stroller and made our way to the car.


The kids pin traded at the exit at 5:19, and we got to the car at 5:25.


The best part is it showed a 9 minute drive to WL. We would have been thrilled with a 9 minute bus wait.


Having the car buys us so much time on the shorter trips.

And it is cool quiet relaxing time, this trip even with cooled seats. We got to WL at 5:35, and on the way in Marshall wanted to stop by the gift shop and spend some of his gift card money on a monorail set.


He spent most of his gift card on the monorail but he also had so much fun with it in the room during the trip.


He also didn’t ask for a whole lot of other things during the trip. We all relaxed, cooled off and got easy for dinner. We had a second buffet to visit!

I ran down to get mug refills, and we changed into clean clothes before dinner. We were there less than a an hour but it was such a refreshing break. We left the room at 6:33 for our 7:05 dinner reservation. We were headed to AKL, and despite making a wrong turn and having to loop through the AK parking lot we still made it to AKL and down to Boma right on time.



Exactly on time. We didn’t have to wait long at all to be seated. I was really excited to be here, the last time we ate here Marshall was 9 months old and I spent a majority of the time outside with him because he was having a fussy night.

This time things were much calmer. We were seated right in the middle of the restaurant and had a very nice server.


We soon went to the buffet and it was excellent, every bit as good as we remembered.


They even had the Tamarind Pork Ribs and they were great.

Everything was so delicious and there are so many different flavors. It is a fantastic buffet because there are some more exotic choices but also very approachable food as well. I enjoyed everything I ate and we left stuffed. A very different experience than our lunch buffet.

It was so good and I too enjoyed everything I tried. From the big dessert section the Zebra domes were my favorite, and I probably had a couple too many.

After dinner we headed up to the lobby and out to check out the animals.



This resort is just amazing. I really would love to stay here sometime with a Savannah view room.

The kids did some pin trading before we went out to see the animals right at sunset. It was really beautiful.


I agree that staying at the “other lodge” would be fun, especially with a car to avoid the long bus rides. I do also feel a Savannah view room would be the way to go.

I don’t know if you could peel me off the balcony.

You might get as addicted to it as I am to WL. Who cares how far it is away from the other parks when there’s animals RIGHT THERE!

Especially the cows. We didn’t see any tonight but they’re my favorite. The sunset was really beautiful too. After we got tired of fending off mosquitoes we headed back inside to the gift shop.


That big gift shop is really nice. We checked out all the cool stuff, and the kids did some more pin trading. I wound up buying Allie a set of new pins to trade with. She was really getting into it.

I also picked up some toys for our nephew.


The best part of the night, besides dinner, was walking out to our own car and not having to ride the bus to Disney Springs to get another bus to Wilderness Lodge.

Yes, our famous worst bus trip ever was from AKL to WL via DS one night on packed busses with an over-tired young version of Allison. It is really nice to hop in the car and drive. We left the AKL gift shop after 9PM and were back at WL by 9:20. The timing was perfect to watch some of the MK fireworks as we walked in.


We headed back up to the room but the boys wanted to catch the end of the fireworks so they headed back down to Geyser Point.

We swung by the room first to grab our mugs, then caught the end of the fireworks at Geyser Point.


The EWP wasn't there, so after the fireworks we headed to the arcade via the courtyard.


We played a few rounds of air hockey before going up to the room just after 10:00.


When we got to the room I mobile ordered some desserts from Roaring Fork and Marshall and I ran down to pick them up. Allie had a campfire cupcake and Marshall had a vanilla onewhile Melissa and I had Magic Cookie Bars.



We sat around the table and ate them until about 11:00 when we went to bed.

This was such a great day. I mean we didn’t have a bad day on the trip but this one was really good. I think Boma earned a spot on our short list of resort restaurants that we like and Biergarten is off the list completely for now. Stay tuned for more fun and good food.

It was nice starting and ending the day with food at the table in the room, and we hadn't even been to MK yet. We had plans for that the next morning...

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

What a great day!