(Updated 1/3) Giraffes, Zebras, and Dragons, Oh My! - Nov/Dec 2025 TR (Disney & Epic Universe)

[tkd lisa]

I love reading your reports! You have a very different approach from my style so it's like a whole different experience!

 

[VAtink]

Joining in, can't wait to read more!

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more .

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Eeek! Following along! I always love reading your TRs

 

[Araminta18]

Following!

Yay thanks for reading!!

 

[Araminta18]

I love reading your reports! You have a very different approach from my style so it's like a whole different experience!

Thanks for reading! I love reading trip reports and seeing everyone's very distinct perspective - 100% agree that it's like a whole different experience.

 

[Araminta18]

Joining in, can't wait to read more!

yay thanks for reading!

 

[Araminta18]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more .

Yay thanks for reading!

 

[Araminta18]

Eeek! Following along! I always love reading your TRs

yay thanks for reading! i'm glad you enjoy reading them - I like writing them!

 

[Araminta18]

AKL Club Breakfast - Saturday, Nov 29, 2025 (part 1)​

The next morning the plan was to go to Animal Kingdom, but we took our time getting up and enjoying our balcony:

LOL not the picture you thought I was gonna put in, right? I'm so funny, in my own mind.


Quite a nice view, even if you can't really see any animals in the picture. They were out there though - there were antelopes (or antelope-looking animals) and some zebras in the back, and giraffes!


There was a feeding pole right there - good morning giraffe!

After we got all ready, it was time for breakfast, and our first experience in the AKL club lounge! The lounge is on the 6th floor, overlooking the lobby, which I really liked:

Not a bad breakfast view!


The breakfast itself was nice, but nothing earth-shattering:

Croissants and pastries - on the far left there's a double chocolate chip loaf that I really liked.

Charcuterie


Turkey bobotie and ham.


Warm sticky buns and oatmeal.


Fruit and yogurt.

So yea, nothing amazing but a solid breakfast.

 

[Araminta18]

Heading Over to Animal Kingdom - Saturday, Nov 29, 2025 (part 2)​

My plate:

Warm sticky roll, double chocolate chip loaf, and the turkey bobotie which was basically egg casserole. Not too bad! I also didn't take a picture of the fruit we had (first carbs, then fruit. ) Solid start to the day.

We also talked to the concierge a little bit and got our welcome chocolates:

from the Ganachery!

holiday chocolates! That one with the gingerbread man was gingerbread flavored - yum.

Breakfast finished, we debated on if we should take the bus over to Animal Kingdom or if we should drive. We ended up deciding to drive because 1. we had to return the car that afternoon and we weren't sure if we'd be going back to the hotel or if we'd go directly from the park and 2. we'd never had the experience of driving to a park.
Oh I almost forgot! Trevor meant to set up his camera to do a sunrise timelapse but he forgot so he set it up right as we left to go to breakfast - enjoy this morning timelapse of the savanna:

Then it was on to Animal Kingdom - by car!

It was super simple to get in and park (I realize all you who drive are like "duh"), and the tram was there waiting, which was nice. They actually closed boarding right after we got on, and we had the tram car all to ourselves!

A few minutes later, we were seeing the Animal Kingdom tree!

There was no line for pictures at the photo op there on the side, so of course we had to take some:



We had a fastpass for the Safari, so we were planning to head right there but as we walked in, we saw Kevin!

So of course had to get a selfie with her.

Then as we walked into the park and the Tree of Life came into view, who did we see?

The Merry Menagerie was out!! This is 100% my absolute favorite holiday experience at DisneyWorld, so it was nice to see them basically first thing. We were planning to watch them later in the day, but since they were out, we had to stop and take a few pictures!

 

[Araminta18]

From the Menagerie to the Safari - Saturday, Nov 29, 2025 (part 3)​

We met Snowball, the little polar bear:

And her mom:

After hearing the little polar bear's name was Snowball, I asked the puppeteer what the mom's name was. He said that he wasn't sure what her name was, and asked if I wanted to help name her. I told him that I'm really bad at naming things and he responded "That's a good name, I'll name her that: 'I'm Really Bad At Naming Things'". So be careful if you're asked to name one of the menagerie!


We also met Nilla the seal:


Very photogenic - and very dramatic!

Nilla was trying to catch the flying seagulls but never was quite able to.

There will be lots more menagerie photos later - they're honestly my favorite part of the holidays at Disney. If you get a chance to see them, take it! The puppets are adorable and the puppeteers are FANTASTIC.

Anyways, it was time for us to head over to the Safari for our fastpass, though we did a quick detour through the gift shop so I could get my Merry Menagerie pins.

At the safari it was basically a walkon in the fastpass line, and we got the back row - yay!


It was an interesting safari - we saw hippos:


And giraffes:

And elephants:

 

[Araminta18]

Animal Kingdom Rides - Saturday, Nov 29, 2025 (part 4)​

Interestingly enough, for the first time we saw a giraffe not on the savanna but instead over by the elephants:

And then more elephants

There were several out, which was fun.

And then of course the lions!


The lions are always so sleepy.

Not a bad safari, as they go.

Next up, we had a fastpass for Everest so we started heading that direction, stopping to get some pictures, of course.

They even had a superzoom at this spot, which I *think* is the first time I've ever seen a superzoom at Animal Kingdom. Or at least, the first time I'm remembering.

At Everest, again the fastpass line was basically a walk on - we got row 4. Not our favorite, but not a big enough difference for us to be picky.

Best ride ever!

In the gift shop Trevor bought a hat - are we surprised? No we are not, though it was slightly surprising that it was a baseball cap and not one more in the vein of Indiana Jones (which is what Trevor usually goes for in this particular gift shop). But the hat said "Y'all YETI for this" and I guess Trevor was in a punny mood.

From here, we made our way over to Dinosaur for our fastpass there. It was interesting walking over there through all the construction walls - it's...not great at the moment, just walls everywhere. Dinosaur was fun though - a walk on both in the fastpass and standby lines and then Trevor go to be the driver!


New frame on the picture! I wonder if they'll updated it for 2026. Well for the one month it'll be open in 2026. I feel like I should drag Trevor back over to Animal Kingdom on our FARTS trip just to ride it one more time and see.

Also, how fun are these decorations at Restaurantosaurus?

 

[Araminta18]

Pandoran Pretzel - Saturday, Nov 29, 2025 (part 5)​

Next up it was time for our fastpass at Navi River Journey, so we started walking over to Pandora. On the way we saw Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde going backstage:

Nick was happy to wave but Judy was VERY focused on getting backstage.

I realize you're all shocked but the Merry Menagerie was out again so we took a couple more pictures and videos:

And then on the way to Pandora is that lovely Merry Menagerie mural that I really wish they'd sell as artwork 'cause I'd absolutely buy it, and there was a photographer so had to stop.


Over at Navi River Journey it was slightly more of a wait than the other rides we'd ridden but not bad at all.

I've yet to see the shaman in B mode - at this point I kind of want to see it in B mode, just for the experience!

Ok, we had one more ride planned before it was Nomad Lounge time and then time to watch the Menagerie for a while: Flight of Passage. We got in line, and this is where we met up with the fastpass line:

In the caves! Oh my goodness, I've never once had to wait to tap in at the second touchpoint for Flight of Passage, but something was absolutely going on today. This was 11:58 am; it took us 15 minutes to get to the merge point. I asked a CM if one of the theaters had gone down or something and she said everything was working normally. But still, so unusual especially since we were standing not moving for like half of those 15 minutes. Anyways. Not that I'm mad - standby was 110 minutes! - just a very different experience and I'm curious why.

ANYWAYS. We had a great ride - Flight of Passage is always fun. We got off a little before 12:45 pm, and enjoyed the only bit of Christmas theming in Pandora:

Anyone remember when they used to have a guy come out in the mech suit and you could interact with him? That was cool.

Anyways, despite the fact that we were literally heading to Nomad Lounge next for lunch, we had to stop and get Trevor his favorite Disney snack:

Pongu Pongu recently added these pretzels to the menu - they're very similar to the ones you get in Germany over at Epcot and Trevor loves them. Highly recommend.

We got on the waitlist for Nomad, as it said it was 10 minutes and we figured we'd take that long to meander over there. HOWEVER, it was one minute. LOL Got the "come back" text almost immediately after getting the "you're on the waitlist" text. Oh well - better than waiting! We got seated out on the balcony, as is our preference, and Trevor kept going with his pretzel.

Really what we need is for Nomad Lounge to start selling the pretzel!

We got the Lilly Gorillie: Strawberry and Sprite

Trevor got the Zingiber Fizzie: Passion Fruit Purée, Mint, Simple Syrup, and Lime Juice topped with Ginger Beer.

 

[Counting Stars]

Wonderful trip report! Really love hearing about your adventures... and club level on this trip- really great! Thanks for sharing

 

[Araminta18]

Wonderful trip report! Really love hearing about your adventures... and club level on this trip- really great! Thanks for sharing

thank you for reading!! appreciate the nice comments

 

[alohamom]

YAY! I just LOVE your trip reports and I am so happy to say this is my first one I have read in 2026!
NEVER stop with the pics girl, they tell your story so well!
Can't wait to read more...

By the end, I managed to get the price down to $541.13 a night for the suite with a park view. I was pretty dang proud of myself, not gonna lie.

WOW-that is great! I always check with rental car prices to see if they have dropped but I have never considered that might happen with hotel rooms.

Anyone else still really mad that they dropped only half the season on Nov 26, and then only half of the remaining episodes on Christmas Day? Come on guys, just give us the whole final season before we all lose interest. Goodness gracious.

At first I was, but we did a rewatch of it all just before the New Years Eve drop so it actually turned out kind of fun in the end.
I won't give away any spoilers here but I really liked the final episode, it was very satisfying.

after 5 Trevor just hopped out and walked over.

#hero

Trevor also found these super cute little storybook gift tins with chocolates in them

Ohhhh, cute! They would make fantastic gifts!

he responded "That's a good name, I'll name her that: 'I'm Really Bad At Naming Things'". So be careful if you're asked to name one of the menagerie!

That's so funny!

 

[piglet1979]

I am joining in. I can't wait to read more.

 

[Araminta18]

How to Interact with the Merry Menagerie - Saturday, Nov 29, 2025 (part 6)​

Ok, food from Nomad! The more trip reports I write the more I realize we are indeed creatures of habit and I kind of feel bad but also I don't. So....what did we get?

Tuna Poke

Sliders with yucca fries:


Bread service:

I actually do wish they'd change up the food menu at Nomad but what the do have is delicious.

After eating, it was about 1:45, so we headed over to watch the menagerie! We figured we had to leave at about 2:30 to take the car back to the rental car center by 3 pm, but that left us with a good solid 45 min of being entertained by the adorable puppets and masterful puppeteers.


Also I love these little lanterns:


After a little bit Trevor decided to lay down on the bench/planter we were sitting on and took a little bit of a nap, and the animals got very curious:

This is like my favorite video ever - I posted it to my instagram and guys I'm basically a famous influencer now, 200k views and 16k likes. But for those of you who don't love videos, pictures! I took some pics but also they had a roaming photopass photographer who took several shots as well.


Trevor is legit asleep.


The fox is looking at the camera, very a la Jim from the Office.

He only woke up when the fox took his hat. Love it!

After he woke up that time, a few minutes later he tried to go back to sleep and this time, the reindeer came to investigate.

 

[Araminta18]

More Menagerie - Saturday, Nov 29, 2025 (part 7)​

The reindeer was also very curious about sleepy Trevor:

Trevor wasn't as asleep this time so he woke up pretty quickly.


Seriously, so cute. If you want the Menagerie to interact with you, just pretend to be asleep.




Anyways. I love the menagerie. I may or may not but definitely did buy ALL the merch that they had for the menagerie.

At this point it was time to take the car back. We probably should have left earlier and then gone back to the hotel to take a nap but we had Guardians fastpasses at 4:30 and Geo-82 reservations at 5:40 so....off we went! But first, pictures! Cause is it even a trip report of mine if I don't stick in all sorts of random photopass pics?


Snowflakes!

The line wasn't super long so we also got a picture with the tree.


Animal Kingdom Christmas Tree!