"We forgot to go to Magic Kingdom!" (Not really) – A September 2019 Trip Report - F&W, MNSSHP - COMPLETE 4/17

[jrmint427]

Pecos Bill’s

Our plan for dinner was to eat at Pecos Bill’s when we got hungry. We headed there after Peter Pan and arrived around 6:15pm. We decided we had completed all the rides we wanted so it was going to be time to leave after dinner. We debated going offsite for dinner, but some of us were hungry, and I thought it would take more time to get food if we had to leave and drive somewhere else first. And, I had been looking forward to my Pecos Bill's veggie burger.

It was 6:40pm by th time we had our food and all our desired toppings. Like everyone else, I love the toppings bar here!



Not a great picture, but I got my veggie burger, which I loaded with toppings.



The girls shared PB&J and rice. They also snacked on chips and applesauce. I was apparently tired and didn’t take many pictures of dinner. The table we got was pretty small, so Pat and his mom grabbed another table right behind us so we could spread out a bit more. Those toppings take up a lot of space!

After dinner we wanted something sweet to take with us. I knew there was a fudge shop next door. We let the girls pick out a treat. Even with all the chocolate and cookies, they picked jelly bellys. There were so many great options, it was hard for the rest of us to decide what to get!



My dad got a giant chocolate chip Mickey cookie and some fudge to share.



My MIL got an English Toffee Square and a White Chocolate Chip cookie, also for sharing.





We snacked on these treats as we walked out of the park. I’m always so sad to be leaving MK. Even though we had one more park day, this was still sad because it was our last MK evening.






We took the monorail and then the tram back to our car. We were back to the condo just after 8:30pm. We needed a good night’s sleep to get through our 7th park day in a row the next day!

Steps: 20,012
Miles: 8.05
Predicted Crowd Level: 3
Actual Crowd Level: 2

 

[jrmint427]

Day 7: Thursday, September 26 – Animal Kingdom

We left the condo around 8:00am. By 8:37am we had parked and were through security. Not too bad for staying offsite! However, we were never able to get a FP for Flight of Passage, and most of our FPs were for the evening this day, so I wasn’t going to be able to pick one up during the day.

We had a FP for Na’vi River Journey at 8:50am, but seeing that the FOP wait time was listed as 46 minutes in Touring, Plans, we made a quick decision. My parents would take the girls to NRJ for the family FP, and Pat, his mom and I would go on standby for FOP. We had already ridden NRJ earlier on our trip, so it wasn’t a big deal to miss that, but I felt really bad that my mom would be missing FOP. My dad can’t ride it because of motion sickness, but my mom loves FOP. It was one that we all were hoping to ride, but my dad wasn’t sure about taking the girls on NRJ on his own, so my mom said it was fine for her to stay with him.



We were in line for FOP at 8:51am. The posted time was 60 minutes, but TP still said 46. I’m not sure how they count the time – to the pre-show or to the ride. We were in pre-show #1 at 9:27am, so a 36 minute wait to that point. And then another 10 minutes before we were on the ride, so 46 minutes was accurate.

We had never waited on the standby line before, so it was fun to see the queue. However, I thought there was an animatronic avatar that we would see on this line, and we never did. Did they remove it? I enjoyed all the other details.









I was so glad I got to go on this ride – it’s an adrenaline rush and such a unique experience. I would have been very sad to miss it! I made it my mission to find a FP for my mom to ride later in the day. We chatted and she and Pat were willing to miss our evening Safari FP to go on FOP instead, so all day I was checking for 2 FPs for FOP. I even tried at the certain times that I had read you were supposed to check for refreshments, and still no luck.

It sounded like the girls and my parents enjoyed NRJ. They took some waterfall pictures after the ride while waiting for us to finish FOP.




A visitor swooped in for a picture.



I think by the time they wrapped up with pictures and a bathroom break, they weren’t waiting for too long for us outside the gift shop.

We had planned to ride Kilimanjaro Safaris next, so we headed in that direction.

 

[jrmint427]

Kilimanjaro Safaris and Gorilla Falls Trail

Since our last two FPs were for evening experiences, we were going to be riding standby on everything else this day. The standby line for the Safaris said a 40-minute wait. This is longer than the girls can normally handle, but TouringPlans said 24 minutes, so we decided to give it a try. We got in line around 10:00am and ended up waiting 42 minutes.

Thankfully, we got to keep the stroller for much of the wait in line, so that helped. I put sunblock on everyone while we were waiting. The girls were a little antsy and acting up a bit, but we made it. We all love this ride and try do it multiple times every trip.



I learned that rhinos can hold their breath under water for 8 minutes.



We saw a lot of baby giraffes on this trip. Our guide told us they had 5 babies on the savanna at that time.



We even got to see one nursing, which was pretty cool.



DD4 was starting to doze off on this ride, but DD2 was into the animals.



After our ride, we started the nearby Gorilla Falls Trail. It was fairly crowded, but we were excited to see the gorillas and other animals on the trail.





The gorillas are just amazing to watch. Two of them got in a little bit of a scuffle, pushing each other like siblings might.



The trail took us about 30 minutes. We wrapped up a little before noon and decided to head to lunch next.

 

[jrmint427]

Satu’li Canteen

We took a path back to Pandora for lunch. Animal Kingdom is just gorgeous.



We were heading to Satu’li Canteen for lunch. I love the food there so much. My mom wasn’t crazy about the food the first time around but had her eye on a different item on the kid’s menu.

Once again, my mom went to find us a table while we picked up our food, which we had mobile ordered. Usually by the time she would find a table that could hold all 7 of us, we'd have our food. She said a CM came by right before we arrived, while she was sitting with the girls, and tried to tell her she needed to move for another large group that needed the table. My mom explained that there were 7 of us so we needed a large table too. The CM commented that my mom didn’t have her food yet, but my mom pointed out that the group with the CM didn’t have their food yet either, so the CM gave up and let us keep the table.

I ordered the same dish – crispy tofu with the sweet potato hash and creamy herb dressing. It tasted a little spicier this time, but I still really liked it.



I think my dad had the beef and noodles with green onion sauce.



Pat knew the dish he got the first time wasn’t enough food for him, so he ordered a combination bowl with chicken and beef.



The girls had the quesadilla with chips, which they really liked.



I missed a picture, but my mom saw other people eating the hot dog wraps on our previous trip, so that was what she ordered. And she liked it much better!

I realized at lunch that the waterfall pictures my parents had taken in the morning were still not showing up in my app. Our accounts were supposed to be linked, but I was worried it wasn’t working, so we went back to take more waterfall pictures before leaving Pandora. Thankfully, I figured out how to get the original pictures later on (my pictures were filtered to only show “mine” – not linked accounts).

Anyway, we got some family pictures this way. You’d think the photographer would have mentioned that we should push the stroller further away

 

[jrmint427]

Everest and Nemo

After lunch we decided to split up again. I really wanted to ride Expedition Everest once more, and my parents offered to take the girls to Dino Land for Triceratops Spin. I realized that since Pat, his mom and I hadn’t used our NRJ FP, the system was letting me pick up another one for us. I didn’t think it was supposed to work like that, but I was able to book us a FP for Expedition Everest, and it did not take away our two evening FPs.

When we arrived, the standby line was 35 minutes. We were glad to have the FP and pretty much walk right on. Pat and I were going to go for a “surprised” look for the picture haha.


Our ride was so quick and there was almost nobody on the Single Rider line, so Pat’s mom and I decided to ride again. It took us less than 10 minutes from the time we got in line until we were off.

I got paired up with a young guy who did not speak much English. I watched someone drop him off at the front of the line and announce she was not going to ride, so I was the single rider. He had not ridden before and seemed a little nervous. He asked me if the ride went upside down (I assured him it didn't) and asked, “Relax me, please.” It was sweet, and he seemed to enjoy it!



My MIL was off just ahead of me.

We headed back to Dino Land to meet the others. DD4 had fallen asleep, but DD2 rode Triceratops Spin twice. The girls had been asking for a treat, so I was going to let them pick something out. DD4 was still sleeping, but DD2 picked out an Anna Pez so I grabbed an Elsa Pez for DD4 to have when she woke up. I loved that the girls could take naps whenever they needed them on our park days.

DD4 still sleeping, we went to get in line for Finding Nemo. We were in line just after 2pm and the theater opened less than 10 minutes later, which was a relief, because we were ready to be out of the heat again. As we were walking in, DD2 said, “We forgot to change into our Nemo dresses!” I couldn’t believe she remembered that she had a Nemo dress from the year before. To be fair, I had packed it as a back-up outfit, but didn’t have it with us this day.

We sat really close this time, maybe even too close, but I was eager to see the show from a different perspective. DD4 woke up shortly before the show started. We had an amazing view of the right side of the stage! I enjoyed being able to see the actors’ faces in addition to the puppets they were holding.















This show always amazes me. At the very end, Dory knelt down next to us and said “Hi!” to both girls. That just made their day. Even though he was just at the other end of the row and saw it, DD4 couldn’t wait to tell her dad that Dory said hi to her. I'm really hoping this show is back by the time we take our next trip.

 

[Isabelle12345]

Thanks for taking the time to complete this trip report - your daughters are previous!
Those photos in front of the waterfall in Pandora are amazing!
And I just LOVE the outfit changes for your girls!
Jumping on your pre-TR... When I saw you were back on the boards to finish this TR, I just knew there was a trip coming soon!

 

[jrmint427]

Thanks for taking the time to complete this trip report - your daughters are previous!
Those photos in front of the waterfall in Pandora are amazing!
And I just LOVE the outfit changes for your girls!
Jumping on your pre-TR... When I saw you were back on the boards to finish this TR, I just knew there was a trip coming soon!

Thanks for reading along! I meant to finish sooner but life got in the way... and of course I got the Disney bug again. I'm not sure we'll do as many outfits on our next trip, between short planning time and also my 5-year-old doesn't want dresses anymore Thanks for jumping to the PTR, I'm excited to have another trip to look forward to!

 

[jrmint427]

Treats, Pocahontas and Bugs

Back out in the heat, we were ready for another treat. While the others wanted another frozen lemonade, I was on the hunt for soft serve. We stopped and sat in some shade to enjoy our treats. You can see how quickly the ice cream was melting!



DD2 loved my treat. DD4 preferred the frozen lemonade.



I had promised DD2 we would meet Pocahontas, so our plan was to find her next. My dad offered to run ahead and get in line for us so we could move a little more slowly with the kids. That worked out well as there was about a 5 minute wait ahead of him when we arrived.

Pocahontas didn’t have a PhotoPass photographer so we had to take our own.




After this meet, we saw that the FOP line was just under an hour according to Touring Plans. It was 4:15pm now and our next FP was not until 6:00pm. All we really had planned for the next two hours was dinner, so this seemed like a perfect time to send my mom off to ride FOP. Pat and his mom went with her, and I took the girls with my dad. I was glad my mom would get to ride it too, and Pat and his mom got a second ride this way.

The first thing my dad suggested we do was It’s Tough to be a Bug. I have always refused to ride as it sounds like my worst nightmare. I also thought the girls would hate it. I told my dad if he could convince the girls to go on it, I would go, but good luck. Well I guess he was persuasive. Even with my warnings about the bugs, they wanted to go. So I reluctantly agreed.

We only waited about 10 minutes. It was fun to see the queue, and I enjoyed the “bug movie” posters.



SPOILERS AHEAD - if you do not want to read about details of this show, skip the rest of this post.

We put on the cute bug glasses, but I was not having a good feeling about this. I thought I remembered reading that bugs would crawl on our backs or scratch our legs in front of us, so I sat on the edge of my seat with my legs up, and encouraged DD4 to do the same. The show started and I thought, This isn’t so bad. DD4 did not like when the bugs threw things at us, but I thought, This is manageable. Then the stink bug came out and farted at us and I thought that was a really rude thing to do to guests.

And then it got worse. The story line, as I understood it, was that we have tried to kill bugs for so long, that now they were going to try to kill us?! What kind of message is that?! DD4 started crying and screaming that she wanted out. At the point where I saw spiders descending above our heads, I was done too. DD4 and I huddled together, eyes closed, and screaming (okay, not sure if I was screaming out loud, but I was internally). I was ready for it to be over too. And just when I thought it was over, the bugs scurried out. I was so proud of not leaning back in the seat and having my legs up the whole time, but I didn’t know that they would run UNDER OUR BUTTS. DD4 and I had had enough at that point and I hope my kids never make me go to this show again. I think DD2 was fine, my dad was holding her.

 

[Isabelle12345]

I truly hated "A bugs life" and will try to avoid it as much as possible unless my kids really really want to do it!
I am so sorry it was such a bad experience for you - but it makes for a great laugh afterwards!

 

[jrmint427]

Pizzafari and Pictures

We were out of the Bug show around 4:45pm and knew we had awhile before the rest of our group would rejoin us. We ended up at Pizzafari for restrooms and then thought it would be a good option for dinner. We sat for a bit. The girls snacked on popcorn and then we ordered them a cheese pizza to share while we waited on the others.



I don't think I'd ever been inside Pizzafari before, it was really pretty!



The others joined us around 5:30pm. They enjoyed the ride! The pizza was better than I expected it to be. After dinner we walked across the way to see the otters. Otters are my and my dad’s favorite animal. They are so playful. They were far away so I didn’t get a great picture, but I did love watching my dad and the girls watching the otters.



Our next stop was to get family pictures in front of the Tree of Life.







We had a 6:00pm FP for the Safaris, so we headed back to Africa next. On our way, we passed these awesome street performers. The head-on-head stunt had to hurt!



We made it to the Safari around 6:30pm.

 

[jrmint427]

Sunset Safari

I wanted to catch a sunset safari on our last trip but we weren’t able to make the timing work. I booked a FP for it this trip because we wanted to make sure to fit it in without worrying about the standby line. It may seem liked a wasted FP (as well as the one we used for ROL this evening), but with two days at Animal Kingdom, we felt like we were able to fit in everything we wanted to do, and these evening FPs ensured we would have a relaxing evening on our last night.

We had a bit of a wait for our safari vehicle. No vehicles came by for almost 5 minutes, so I’m guessing there was an animal blocking the road. It wasn’t quite sunset/dark when we started our ride, but it was getting there, and made for a beautiful setting.

















The lions were sleeping, as I think they have been every time I’ve ever seen them. Our guide told us that lions sleep so much that they are only awake for about 3 years of their life.

We were off the ride around 7:00pm and decided to head in the direction of Rivers of Light. DD2 fell asleep on the way. DD4 was excited to see these statues of Russell and Dug and asked for a picture with them.



We made it to the ROL stadium around 7:20pm and decided to go ahead and find our seats.

 

[jrmint427]

Rivers of Light

The sun was still setting while we waited for the show to start.



I was shocked by how hot the benches were, especially this late in the day. I really wish they provided backs to the seats in this arena, similar to Beauty and the Beast, and wish they had picked a cooler material. The bench hurt to sit on!



My dad went to get bottled waters. We chatted with some of the people around us. We had a handheld fan, which a woman behind us asked me about. I let her take a turn with it, as we were passing it back and forth within our family. I had brought glow-in-the-dark sticks, which I pulled out for the girls, and suggested DD4 give some to the boys sitting behind us. DD2 asked why I wanted to give glow sticks to the boys and my dad told her because I was sharing and sharing is good. DD2 said, “Good Mommy!”

While we were waiting for the show, DD2 also exclaimed, “Mommy! We forgot to go to Magic Kingdom!” I know I told that story early on, as that became the title for my Trip Report, but it was so funny. I reminded her we had spent three days there and would (hopefully) be back again some day, but that we were spending our last day at Animal Kingdom.

The show started around 8:00pm and was amazing. I liked it even more than when we had watched it back in 2017. I suspected, but it wasn’t until we returned from the trip that I learned it had received an update this year. I loved that they added in scenes of animals from Disney movies, and felt like the Disney connection was what was missing last time. It was a beautiful show.










That's 10 pictures, so to be continued in the next post! I really hope this show comes back, there's currently no nighttime show planned for our next trip.

 

[jrmint427]

River of Lights (Part 2)

This really was a beautiful show.





The show lasted less than 20 minutes. As we were walking out of the arena, my MIL was carrying DD4. She had her eyes closed, but had the biggest grin on her face, and I thought that was really sweet. The picture is blurry but I had to try to capture that joy.



As we were walking to the tram, the girls woke up and began to sing. They sang It's a Small World at the top of their lungs. It was just the most perfect way to end our trip. They were getting some “awws” from people around us. I have to share the video. Hoping this works:

There was an energetic CM working at the tram station who explained that we were going to be the wildebeest from Lion King when the tram came, except that we would not trample each other and would wait for her to yell “go” before approaching the tram, but then we would be wildebeest who pile in as quickly as possible. I thought she was great and appreciated her energy in a job that could probably be very boring for most people.

We were back to our car just before 9:00pm and back to the condo about 20 minutes later. It was finally time to get some rest, as we had a long drive ahead of us the next day.

Steps: 20,327
Miles: 8.25
Predicted Crowd Level: 3
Actual Crowd Level: 2

 

[jrmint427]

The Trip Home / Dumbo Birthday Party

Our trip home was, thankfully, uneventful. We drove back in our van and my parents followed us in their car, as they were coming back to Texas with us to celebrate the girls’ birthdays a few days after this trip (they were turning 3 and 5).

We were on the road by 9:30am our first morning. At exit 382 we saw a ton of “no parking” signs which was really funny. We decided it must be a major issue for that mile stretch for some reason?



We stopped for lunch around 12:30pm at Bob Evans in Lake City, which is where we had stayed the night on our way out. We stopped for the night in Gulfport. We decided to eat at a Chili’s across from the hotel where we were staying, and while at the restaurant, realized we had eaten at that same Chili’s driving home from our trip back in November 2018. It’s now our Chili’s and will probably become a tradition any time we drive to Disney!

We made it home the next day. We picked up our dog and took the evening to relax. Thankfully we had a Sunday before going back to work, but it was a busy day – as we were having the girls’ birthday party at our house the next weekend! We had a Dumbo themed party.





We had a wonderful trip and cannot wait to go back. Pat asked that we take a year off so we could travel to other places the next year... little did we know we wouldn't be traveling at all for awhile. But we're so excited to be planning for our next trip in June of this year - less than 2 months to go!

Thank you so much for following along! I am in the middle of planning our June trip, so feel free to jump to the pre-trip report in my signature to help me plan.

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Great TR, loved following along!! My kids are going to be 2.5 & almost 4yo when we go in September so I found myself chuckling along with you as I can foresee a lot of similarities between mine & your kids. I have to ask (and maybe you posted it at some point and I missed it?) but WHERE did you get the girls' dresses??? Since they are all kind of similar fabric/design I assume the same person/shop made them all?? SO stinking cute!!!!

 

[jrmint427]

Great TR, loved following along!! My kids are going to be 2.5 & almost 4yo when we go in September so I found myself chuckling along with you as I can foresee a lot of similarities between mine & your kids. I have to ask (and maybe you posted it at some point and I missed it?) but WHERE did you get the girls' dresses??? Since they are all kind of similar fabric/design I assume the same person/shop made them all?? SO stinking cute!!!!

Thank you! 2 and 4 are really such a great age to go, everything is so magical at those ages. I got a lot of their dresses from a shop called Lil Bit of Sparkle. I love her dresses, they were comfortable for the park days.