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

[Araminta18]

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...

awww, thank you!! It's the first one I've written in 2026, so an awesome start to the New Year for both of us! LOL And you know I'm not gonna stop with the pics, just gonna sometimes apologize about the amount LOL

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.

Oooh yea definitely check on the hotel rooms! Disney doesn't drop their prices too much, but sometimes you can see a room category become eligible for a discount that wasn't available before. But for Universal, it was dropping like $20/$30 every single day - crazy!

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.

oh wow- you rewatched the whole series?! That's dedication - glad you had fun! Though I agree - I did like the final episode a lot. I thought it wrapped things up nicely, which is what I want in a finale.

 

[Araminta18]

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

yay thanks for reading!!!

 

[nascargirl]

Awesome another trip report to read.

 

[Paulaparm]

That video of the menagerie and Trevor’s nap is fantastic!

 

[piglet1979]

I so need to see these puppets. They look so cute.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I love the Merry Menagerie so much fun!
I did find this print and absolutely loved it!

 

[Araminta18]

Awesome another trip report to read.

yay thanks for reading!!

 

[Araminta18]

That video of the menagerie and Trevor’s nap is fantastic!

Isn't it great? I'm totally laughing the entire time I'm filming - it was awesome!

 

[Araminta18]

I so need to see these puppets. They look so cute.

Yes definitely! They are super cute, and the CMs who are the puppeteers are just top notch and really bring them to life.

 

[Araminta18]

I love the Merry Menagerie so much fun!
I did find this print and absolutely loved it!
View attachment 1035253

Ooh I missed that in person, but I remember seeing the announcement. Super cute! I did get this one from a calendar a couple years ago that is closer to the mural:

Basically, we need more Merry Menagerie art!

 

[Araminta18]

One Way Or Another - Saturday, Nov 29, 2025 (part 8)​

We quickly made our way back to the car (love those trams, the CMs are hilarious), and quickly made our way to the DisneyWorld Car center. There's even a gas station right next door to the center with gas for a not-exorbitant price, so that was super convenient. We dropped the car off and about 5 min later they had a van shuttle pull up to take us to Epcot. They asked where we were going so I assume we could select any park or Disney hotel - there was another couple there with us and they were being taken to Bay Lake Tower. We did get dropped off at the Uber/Lyft drop off area though, not the bus drop off. Which is fine, just a bit more of a walk.

But shortly, we were walking into Epcot!

This was 3:30, so we had a little bit of time til our Guardians fastpass. So what did we do? Pictures!




Figment with his sweater!

My next picture is 45 min later when we were tapping in at Guardians. I have literally no idea what we did in the intervening 45 minutes - no pictures, no notes, no thing. It's a mystery! But at 4:15 we tapped in for Guardians, and this line was also a bit backed up:

Thankfully despite it being backed up it did move pretty steadily - 10 minutes to get from here to the first room. We obviously waited for row 9, and at 4:45 we were on the ride!

30 minutes, with fastpasses. Not great, but at least we got to ride!

Trevor was having fun. What song did we get? One Way or Another, which isn't our favorite but on the bright side, it's not Disco Inferno.


As we got off the ride, we looked in the gift shop and Connections, but didn't find anything super exciting. Though I did remember we were near Refreshment Station which theoretically had the AP slushie, so I wandered over there to get it - last time I tried they were out of the cute cup.

They weren't out today! Blue raspberry with some fun edible decorations on the top.

They also had a sour fruit punch icee, which is not a flavor I'd ever seen before so I got that too.

It was pretty good - a bit odd, but good. I still prefer cherry, but this was good - more sour than I expected.

At this point, it was about 5:15, so off we went to our reservation at Geo-82!

 

[Araminta18]

Gingerbread and Geo-82 - Saturday, Nov 29, 2025 (part 9)​

We got sidetracked and walked into Communicore Hall - they had a giant gingerbread Spaceship Earth!

There was also a countdown clock that only had 3 minutes on it, so we stuck around to see what would happen:

Pretty!

Then it was time for Geo-82!

We were about 20 minutes early for our reservation but they took us up to the waiting area anyways (gotta love that cool towel) and we were seated by 5:30 - not bad! I did specifically ask to not be seated at the bar, since I didn't love my experience there last year, and it was granted!


Not bad at all - I was selfishly hoping we'd get seated at the window, but this was the next best thing. Though I'm a nice wife: I let Trevor have the seat with the view of the Christmas tree, as the pillar there blocked my view.

I love the reflection of the lights in the window - they look like fireworks!

Anyways, this was my second visit but Trevor's first, so I shared with him my thoughts on the food and drink I got on my first visit and he decided to get the drink I got before: A Walk Through the Garden (Seedlip Garden 108 Non-Alcoholic Spirit, Basil, Fennel, Lemon, Hella Cocktail Co. Orange Bitters, The Bitter Truth Celery Bitters, Bubbles).

Normally he doesn't like the mocktails with the fake alcohol, but he agreed that this one was refreshing. Definitely a sipping drink though.

I didn't want to get that one again, so I just asked the waiter for a berry drink. It was a bit loud so I don't think he heard me and when he said "a fruity drink?" I just said yea. It was super pretty when it came:

But despite the purple color tasted mostly of pineapple? *shrugs* oh well.

As for food, we got three items. First, the Funghi Flatbread (Roasted Mushrooms, Miso-Mascarpone, Mozzarella, Fontina, Pickled Red Onion, Black Garlic Molasses) for me.

Neither Trevor nor I like mushrooms, but I figured I'd be able to pick them off, and I mostly could. The cheese with the onions and the sauce were really good. Trevor just had one little bite cause he also doesn't love melted cheese, so it was mostly just for me.

Trevor got the Jumbo Lump Crab Gâteau (Smoked Cheddar, Pickled Mustard Seed-Lemon Vinaigrette, Supreme Caviar):

He liked this a lot but too fishy for me.

And then for both of us we got the Cannellini Hummus: Pumpkin Seed Pistou, Radish, Preserved Lemon, Fresno Peppers, Pappadam.

This was really good - we both liked it. We did run out of the pappadam and asked them to bring some more, which they nicely did, free of charge! That was a surprise 'cause I totally expected us to be charged for it.

Overall, a much better experience than my time at the bar in September. The service was a bit slow but the waiter was nice, and our food and drinks were good. Oh, my drink became MUCH less pineapple forward about halfway through, which was weird but nice. Still an expensive lounge, but we enjoyed it.

 

[erinch]

Along for the ride! And the pics!

 

[Araminta18]

Along for the ride! And the pics!

Yay thanks for reading!!!

 

[Araminta18]

The Greenhouses are A'Glimmering! - Saturday, Nov 29, 2025 (part 10)​

With dinner done, we had three remaining things we wanted to do today: ride Living with the Land Glimmering Greenhouses (especially after we missed it last year where they had the lights up but not on ), and see the gingerbread at Beach Club and Boardwalk. Luckily we had a fastpass for Living with the Land, so we headed that way!

Cause it's me, we got distracted with a photographer.

Note that Baymax is lit up, as well as my ears.



The lights on Spaceship Earth are Mickeys!

Right as we finished taking pictures, one of the shows on Spaceship Earth started so of course we watched that:

Ok now for reals we were heading to the Land pavilion. Except we passed a pin kiosk outside and so we stopped (the pins have sucked us in) - Trevor got another Disney Afternoon TV pin, and this time he got Chip and Dale, which was 1. not a duplicate and 2. one of the ones he wanted, so yay!

Finally we made it to Living with the Land:

I was grateful for the fastpass - that line isn't horrible (20 minutes) but longer than I ever want to wait for Living with the Land (don't @ me). We boarded shortly after and were the second row, which was nice. The greenhouses are gorgeous with all the Christmas lights:


I especially love the snowmen:

And the little lightup "stones" in the sand:


Mickey reindeer!


Stockings in the lab window!

So cute - definitely made up for missing it last year.

We got off just after 7 pm, and started making our way towards International Gateway and the Epcot resorts to see the gingerbread.

 

[Araminta18]

Cookies! - Saturday, Nov 29, 2025 (part 11)​

I was very into how everything was lit up, don't ask me why:

Baymax and the ears!

Anyways, we passed the Scentsy area, with the snow globes that smell like various Christmas things:

Cute idea - I don't remember what silver bells smell like but still, neat. I'd prefer it wasn't an MLM but *shrugs*

We passed a food booth and it had a picture of the cookie stroll on the side so Trevor and I were looking at what cookies they had and I was lamenting that they only had a cinnamon crinkle cookie not a regular crinkle cookie, but Trevor got sucked in by the Maple Shortbread Cookie in Canada. He wasn't gonna get it but when I pointed out that we were right there by Canada he went for it.

Baymax is also interested in the cookie. Neither shortbread nor maple are my favorites - I'll eat them on occasion, but mostly I feel pretty "meh". But Trevor likes both of them, and liked this cookie a lot. He said the shortbread was sandy and nice and soft, and has sugar crystals on it instead of powdered sugar which added a nice crunch, and then the frosting/filling was not overly sweet which he appreciated. I took a bite and it was fine, but i'll tell you that maple smell when you walk by the booth is STRONG!

We kept going and ducked into the UK gift shops though we didn't buy anything (I'm always hoping for good Mary Poppins merch), but then had to stop and take a pic with Tink!



Then, after Trevor having such a good experience with the maple shortbread cookie, he decided he wanted to get the Black and White almond cookie over in Morocco. I was not willing to walk over there (my feet hurt!) so we split up - me over to Beach Club and him to Morocco and then to meet me at Beach Club. He also generally walks faster than I do (but nicely slows down when we walk together) so we figured it'd be interesting to see how much (or little) time ahead of him I was at Beach Club.


Bye Mickey!


I do love these little lights on the lightpoles - small but a nice touch.

The carousel, as always, is fantastic:

I also love the stats they post about the gingerbread (obviously I'm a fan of metrics/stats )

2024 pieces of gingerbread!

I also had to get some treats: I got the pin, the gingerbread shingle, the milk chocolate bar (the packaged one), and the almond cookie they had with the carousel horse on it (which I apparently forgot to take a picture of but check out @VAtink's post in her December TR and you can see it )

And basically right after I checked out with my gingerbread treats, Trevor showed up at Beach Club! I beat him by 8 minutes...Trevor walks fast and I walk slow, apparently.

Black and White cookie successfully acquired. This was really good - we didn't really taste the almond with the first couple bites (the chocolate overpowered it) but once we got into the middle of the cookie we could really taste the lovely almond flavor. Two cookies, and both hits - crazy!

From here, we spent a bit more time looking around and then headed over to the Boardwalk. We decided to take the boat across the lagoon and got lucky - the boat was there finishing loading up and we just made it on before the closed up and left. Woohoo!

 

[Araminta18]

Boardwalk and AKL - Saturday, Nov 29, 2025 (part 12)​

Once we made it across the lagoon, I wanted to look in the gift shop there, cause I feel like that one has a good selection of things (including Boardwalk specific merch) and is a bit of a hidden gem. I was also kind of hoping to find the Sleeping Beauty little book tin of chocolates, since Connections didn't have that particular one. But as we were heading there, we ran into some jumpropers on the Boardwalk.

Honestly the Boardwalk entertainers are the best. If you get a chance to see them, definitely take it.

The gift shop was a success (they had the Sleeping Beauty book tin! ), and so we headed into the Boardwalk lobby.

Movies with the Christmas tree! I think it was a Very Jonas Christmas which doesn't strike me as too Christmassy but I figure I'm not really the target audience.

Inside, there wasn't really a crowd for the gingerbread, which was nice. I love the unique aspect of this gingerbread house - it's the Boardwalk Deli!

Minnie has the castle made out of gingerbread! So cute. I can't. We did also buy some treats (mickey cookie and italian cookies, and the pin of course). A good way to cap off our gingerbread tour.

Our original plan was to maybe head over to Magic Kingdom from here to look at the gingerbread house at Wilderness Lodge, but considering the time, we decided to bail and just head back to AKL. We grabbed an uber (that came VERY fast, thankfully - love it when we don't have to wait for an Uber) and 20 minutes later we were in the AKL lobby so we had to look at our gingerbread.

I'm ashamed to say it took me til this picture to realize that the giraffe and the zebra and other animals were the gingerbread display for AKL. How cute! We also got the zebra bark from the shop here, which we didn't eat til later in the trip but was absolutely delicious. We also got the zebra gingerbread (pic coming later. ).

With it being 8:30, we decided to head up to the lounge and see what the desserts were!

Kenyan coffee tart and safari cupcake (chocolate cupcake).

Caramel tart and Orange Sesame Cake.

Spa Water and Strawberry Lemonade and Unsweetened Iced Tea. Trevor was excited for the strawberry lemonade.

And most importantly:

The freezer of ice creams!

 

[WWhitehead]

I love all your detailed trip reports. I take a yearly trip with my daughter (who is now 22), and we always tend to go in late April or early May (usually due to her college schedule). Now that she has graduated, your trip reports make me want to go during the holidays or festival of the arts. Thanks for all the pictures and taking the time to share it all with us!