Whistle While You Work – 2 Weeks at Disney - A June 2022 Trip Report

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

That's some wonderful MK time! IASW is a family favorite here, too.

 

[jrmint427]

Cosmic Ray’s​

I initially thought we would get quick service at Columbia Harbour House or Pecos Bill’s. CHH was closer to where we were so I checked their menu, but they didn’t have the Lighthouse Sandwich I hoped to order (which had hummus and broccoli slaw and was such a good sandwich). The only vegetarian option was the Doom Burger, a plant-based crab cake sandwich. I never liked seafood before I became a vegetarian, so this was not appealing to me.

I also love Casey’s for their vegan dog, but Cosmic Ray’s was closer, and I knew it would appeal more to the rest of my family who said Casey's just have average hot dogs. We put in our mobile order right before we rode Buzz and we headed there next to pick up our lunch. The inside was mobbed but we found a table outside in the shade. It was still very hot, but better than being out in the sun.

Our food took awhile to be ready, I got the message to pick it up at 12:47pm, more than 20 minutes after we finished our Buzz ride.



My parents both ordered the Barbecued Chicken Sandwich. I ordered the Burger to the Moon, which was listed as an Impossible Burger served with guacamole, tomato and cabbage slaw. Mine came with Brussels sprouts instead of tomato which I actually liked better, it made the burger more interesting. It came dusted with some kind of flour which was messy and I wished they had just skipped. I think it was to make the bun look like the moon’s surface, with an American Flag in the middle of it.



The toppings inside:



I would have ordered this again on our next trip, but it looks like they've switched it out for a burger with Swiss cheese (yuck) and pickle slaw. Pat ordered the Greek Salad with Chicken Strips.



The girls ordered the mac and cheese but I didn’t get a picture of it beyond what you can see behind the salad above. The food was surprisingly good. I did wish we had booked an indoor meal with A/C, but quick service saves a lot of time, especially with mobile ordering.

 

[jrmint427]

Fantasyland, Part 3​

It was time to use our Peter Pan LL. We arrived at 1:30pm. The posted wait time was 80 minutes, TouringPlans said 75 min, but we only waited about 5 minutes with the LL. I rode with DD5 who was very worried about when we would see the crocodile, but she did well. Both girls asked if we could ride it again! But we weren’t about to wait more than an hour for it.

I distracted them with the carousel next, which they had asked to ride when we passed it earlier. I was actually thinking we would skip the carousel on this trip, especially after we rode one at Disney Springs, but I was following their lead. The posted wait time was 15 minutes and we waited just under that. We used the time in line to re-apply sunblock.






We used a LL to visit the Princesses next. We saw Rapunzel and Tiana. The posted wait time was 35 minutes, we waited about 5 minutes. I was really appreciating Genie+ at this point. Rapunzel was up first. She was chattering away, but the girls were very quiet. She asked if this was their first time out of their tower too and DD5 turned around and gave us a skeptical look. I was disappointed there was no photo pass photographer with the princesses, my picture quality wasn't great.





Tiana was up next. The princesses were really good at filling the silence, but once again, my girls didn’t say anything.



They did seem to love the hugs though.



It was almost 2:30pm when we were leaving, and we decided we needed to find more A/C. The afternoons were brutal and we probably should have taken a better break from the heat. But for now, we were off to the Hall of the Presidents.

 

[jrmint427]

Presidents, Parade, Princess Coaster and Pirate Treats​

We waited about 10 minutes to go into the Hall of Presidents, but at least we were in A/C. We love the Hall of Presidents. DD7 surprised me on our last trip by being fascinated by the show, and she seemed to enjoy it again this time. DD5 said it was a little boring, but she liked it.



The show wrapped up just after 3pm. I had forgotten about the parade because I wasn’t planning for us to watch it. I thought it was way too hot to bake out in the sun for 30+ minutes to save a spot while waiting for it to start, and hoped the girls wouldn’t miss it. But the parade was just starting to pass by the Hall of Presidents at 3:10pm and the girls got excited, so we stayed to watch it. We were walking out just as Belle and the Beast were approaching, so we caught the whole thing with a pretty good view!




I took a lot of video of DD7 waving at the characters. DD5 was watching a few spots down with my parents.



I was glad we caught the parade, it really is a lot of fun. I was even more happy that we didn’t have to wait in the sun for it to start! It took about 10 minutes for the parade to pass us, and then we were off to our ILL for 7DMT.

Our ILL was good from 2:55pm – 3:55pm and we arrived just after 3:30pm. The posted wait time was 85 minutes but we only waited about 5 minutes. I missed seeing the queue but was thrilled to not have to wait. The ILL was $12 per person, $76.68 for our family of 6. In hindsight… it was not worth the extra cost. We paid $0.96 per minute saved in line for our party of 6, or $0.16 per person per minutes saved in line. If it had only been 1-3 of us who wanted to ride, and those 1-3 loved the ride, that probably would have been worth it. But instead, we paid a lot to upset half of our group.

DD5 and I had the front row, which at first, I thought would be great because she could see where we are going. I was very wrong. She started crying hard at the very beginning and I spent the whole time with my arms around her, trying to tell her it would be okay and missing much of it myself. She hated it. My parents didn’t like it either. I had sent the videos of the ride ahead of time and they both thought they could handle it but my dad gets motion sickness and my mom doesn’t like to be shaken much, so this was a bust for most of our family.

Pat and DD7 had a good time! But I don’t think we’ll be paying for this one again in the future. Even if we had all loved it, $76 was a lot to pay for just a couple of minutes of entertainment.



We were really hot and ready to cool down with a treat in some shade. We went back to Adventureland to Tortuga Tavern, which is our tradition now. There is plenty of seating in the shade there, especially for a 3-4pm break. My dad got Lemonade Pirate Slushies to share and some waters, and I placed a mobile order at Sunshine Tree Terrace for some ice cream treats.

I got the text that our food was ready at 4:16pm but had to wait about 5 minutes to get to the front of the window. Pat came with me to help carry everything. I saved some time because it turned out the person ahead of me thought they could order at the mobile pick-up window and missed the long, winding line along the side of the building. Mobile ordering really was a time saver!

It was a couple minute walk from Sunshine Tree Terrace back to Tortuga Tavern which meant the ice cream was melting along the way. I had hoped they would have the Redd’s Revenge I got on our last trip but since they didn’t, I ordered the I Lava You Float (Fanta strawberry soda and passion fruit flavor served with Dole Whip Orange and topped with popping candy). I could have done without the pop rocks, but otherwise loved the orange and strawberry flavors, it was very refreshing.



The girls both wanted chocolate and vanilla swirl soft serve.




I apparently didn’t get pictures (I blame the heat), but I also got a chocolate soft serve for my dad, a root beer float for Pat and a diet coke for my mom. The cold treats in the shade really helped to cool us down.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I did that Silver Lake Resort timeshare presentation in 2008. Never again! It was awful. I had to threaten them a bit when they acted like I couldn’t go get my kids from the childcare area. They were also very nasty and condescending when we said we weren’t going to purchase.

Glad your first park day is off to a great start!!!

 

[jrmint427]

I did that Silver Lake Resort timeshare presentation in 2008. Never again! It was awful. I had to threaten them a bit when they acted like I couldn’t go get my kids from the childcare area. They were also very nasty and condescending when we said we weren’t going to purchase.

Oh no! I wish I had known what we were walking into. They were pretty rude and condescending with us too, not sure why they think that approach will help them make sales but it scared us away.

 

[jrmint427]

Liberty Square and Frontierland Fun​

We had a LL for Haunted Mansion so that’s where we headed next. You can see the crowds were really picking up on our way, this was right before 5pm.



We were in line at Haunted Mansion at 5:02pm. Even the LL was really long, stretching out almost as far as the standby line. This is where we got in line.



The standby wait was 60 minutes. We waited 35 minutes with the LL, which was our longest wait of the entire day. The ride kept going down, which is probably why the LL was so backed up. It gave us time to admire the animal graveyard, which I didn't remember noticing before.



We were so hot even in the shade at this point, so we were thrilled when we made it inside to the stretching room. I warned DD5 what was going to happen and held her, but she still got scared and started crying. She was crying so hard that she didn’t want to ride after the stretching room. I tried to tell her it’s a funny haunted house, and that we would laugh at the ghosts, but she wasn’t having it. I eventually told her she didn’t have to ride, and I would sit it out with her. I told the other adults that I was going to ask if we could bail and see if I could do a last-minute rider swap, but if they didn’t let me, no problem. I was disappointed, but after the 7DMT fiasco, I didn’t want to push DD5 any further this day.

Once we got into the last queue room where they load the Doom Buggies, I could see that the ride kept stopping. I think we waited at least 10-15 minutes in that room. The ride would start, but then would stop a minute later. I had to keep reassuring DD5 that she wasn’t going to ride during that 10-15 minute wait, which felt like longer.

But then it turned out I was lying. Apparently, there is no place to exit once you’re in the boarding room. We got to the front of the line and I told the CM we were bailing, but she said it was too late. I said DD5 was really scared after the stretching room and didn’t want to ride and she said, there’s no exit here, you need to get on now. I’m not sure what would have happened if we absolutely refused, but I dragged DD5 into a Doom Buggy and felt awful about it.

I loved the ride, she hated it. She doesn’t like being in the dark, and we kept getting stuck as the ride continued to stop every few minutes. We first got stuck in the endless staircase room, which gave me more time to take in the details. We also got stuck in my favorite room where the ghosts are dancing.



One of my daughters was talking about a grandma in a rocking chair right before we got on this ride. I thought it was DD7 but after we rode the other adults told me it was DD5. I didn’t remember a grandma in a rocking chair, but while we were stuck in the dancing ghosts ballroom scene, I noticed granny rocking in the corner! I couldn’t believe they had noticed and remembered that. DD5 was just turning 3 the last time we came to WDW. This pic isn’t mine but gives you a better view of what she looks like.



I was also disappointed that I never got the picture of DD5 and I on HM. I probably should have stopped to ask about it but never did. Major thanks to my dad for carrying around our large diaper bag, which no longer carried diapers but fans, coloring books, rain ponchos, etc. I need to remember to get a backpack for our next trip!




I’ll be shocked if I can ever get DD5 on that ride again! But I've been trying to talk it up for our next trip, and she watched the episode on Disney+ about Haunted Mansion with me recently.

We split up after this ride. The girls were begging for Tiki Room, so my parents took them there while Pat and I went to ride Big Thunder Mountain. We thought DD7 might like that one, but she preferred to go to the Tiki Room. We walked part of the way together.



I had booked a 6:10pm LL for me and Pat to ride BTM. We got there a little early and waited a few minutes until 6:05pm to scan in, since you can typically get in 5 minutes before your scheduled time. The posted wait time was 50 minutes and we waited 9 minutes. We love this coaster!



I also love the view of the castle.



On the way to Adventureland to meet our family we were stopped by the Rainy Day Cavalcade, which was something I didn’t know about before we saw the end of it. We spotted Mary Poppins, Jasmine, Pocahontas and Elena going by in a vehicle. I took a video to show the girls later, I was sad they missed it.

I’m pretty sure it rained while we were inside Haunted Mansion, but we didn’t experience much rain this day beyond a light mist. We put the stroller cover over the stroller while we were on HM and that turned out to have been a good move (it was wet when we returned), but we never had to get our ponchos out.

 

[jrmint427]

Country Bears and Liberty Tree Tavern​

It was almost 6:30pm by the time we met the rest of our group back at the Tiki Room. The girls had enjoyed the show, except that DD5 asked my mom if they could leave during the storm part. They were twirling around with their bubble wands when we got back to them.




A security guard stopped to say thank you to the girls for sharing their bubbles. They excitedly told me, “Everyone likes our bubbles, even a police officer!”

We had a dinner reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern at 7:05pm so we decided to head in that direction to see if we could get in early. We talked about stopping for the Country Bears show on our way, but the sign outside didn’t have a next show listed. Right then, a Country Bear walked by. It felt like a flash mob was forming and before we knew it, there was a full-on Hoedown happening!

I didn’t know about this show, so it was a fun surprise. The characters were encouraging people to join in the dancing, but the girls were shy and preferred to just watch.



When the hoedown wrapped up, we saw the Country Bears show was about to start. I asked the CM how long the show was and did the math, realizing we could probably squeeze it in before our dinner reservation. She told us to sit toward the exit doors so if we needed to leave early, we could.



I always think of this as something we can skip but end up enjoying it every time. I was glad we made it work because DD7 said it was one of her favorite things at MK.

We made it to the restaurant one minute before our reservation time and were sat quickly. We were originally going to meet friends for dinner here and see if we could all be sat together. It was a total coincidence, but when I first started posting pictures of our trip on social media earlier this week, one of my best friends from high school reached out to ask how long we would be at Disney because she and her family were coming at the end of the week! We realized our MK and AK days were overlapping and became very excited. She and her family had booked a LTT reservation at the same time as ours, but when it started raining earlier in the day, they decided to bail and leave the park. I was sad we didn’t get to see them this day (we live in different states and don't get to see each other often), but we texted and said we would be sure to meet up at AK the next day.

As a side note, my college roommate (and one of my best friends from college) was also in Orlando at the same time. But hers was a work trip (she’s a TA) and our days didn’t line up. I got to see her when we went to Universal back in April because she and her family had traveled there at the same time, so at least we had seen each other recently. It can really be a small world... when you're at Disney!

I love the atmosphere at Liberty Tree Tavern, it's like being in an old house. It’s a family style meal and feels like Thanksgiving, which happens to be my favorite holiday. We started with the Declaration Salad and bread, both were very good.



The girls and I had the Impossible Meatloaf, served with mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy and green beans. They first brought out a plate in front of me with 3 large pieces of meatloaf and I thought, perfect, one for each of us.



This was immediately followed by individual plates for each girls with 2 more large pieces of meatloaf each, and a pile of mashed potatoes and green beans.



Can you tell how big those meatloaf pieces are?? I knew there was no way we were going to even make a dent in 7 pieces of vegetarian meatloaf. And of course, neither of my girls cared for the meatloaf so I had 7 pieces to myself. I felt so guilty that I ate almost 1.5 pieces on my own, but I was stuffed at that point and had to stop. I would have loved to have taken the leftovers with us, but we still had 3-4 hours at the park. Not only did we not want to carry around bags of food, but it wouldn’t have kept well in the heat. I struggled with the waste here. If we eat at LTT again I would let them know to just bring 2 pieces and wait for us to ask for more if we want it. I couldn’t believe they brought out 7 servings for me and the two girls. The meatloaf was amazing, though! The mashed potatoes were really good too. I don’t like green beans in general but ate a few.

The girls loved the mac n’ cheese and we ended up ordering extra. The second mac n’ cheese dish was very salty. In fact, a few bites tasted like the salt hadn’t been mixed at all in this batch.



The others enjoyed their meat platter. I didn't get many pictures or take notes on it, but I know they liked it!



The best part of LTT is the dessert. The Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake is one of my favorite Disney desserts. It comes with vanilla toffee cake, chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. Our plant-based meal was supposed to come with apple cake as the dessert since the toffee cake isn’t vegan, but I asked our server if we could have the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake too. He was very concerned that it wasn’t plant-based despite me trying to assure him that we’re vegetarian (no meat), not vegan, so we eat dairy. He looked skeptical but brought out 6 portions of the toffee cake.



It wasn’t quite as good as I remembered, but it was still very good. The version we had in 2017 had been more of a brownie consistency (square rather than round) and was served in a warm skillet. That’s what I was expecting. This cake was softer, less chewy, and was not served warm.

Overall, it was a very good meal and we left full and happy.

 

[jrmint427]

Last Rides and Fireworks​

It was 8:05pm when we left dinner. There were people already holding spots for the fireworks show, which had been our initial plan. However, there were still rides we wanted to catch, the girls weren’t super excited about seeing the fireworks up close, and my parents noted that we had just seen the show from the Polynesian a few nights before. Part of me wanted to see the show up close and with the castle projections, but I gave the girls the option of fireworks or more rides, and they picked rides.

We headed toward Tomorrowland, which was less crowded thanks to fireworks starting soon. We took a few pictures against the wall heading in, and passed a PhotoPass photographer who took some for us too.





I had the Monsters Inc show on our “maybe” list but was really excited we had time to fit it in. We waited maybe 10 minutes to get into the theater. The “Inhuman Resources” door is one of my favorite things at MK. I work in HR and always joke that I need that sign for my desk.



While you’re waiting in line, they encourage you to text jokes to a posted number. DD7 had me text the following:

Why did the Banana go to the doctor? Because it wasn’t peeling well!

They ended up reading her joke during the show, which just made her day. I was also on camera for the first time! DD5 was on with me. The theater wasn’t very full, so we had a better chance at making it on. I had hoped Pat or my dad might be “That Guy” I was asked where I was from and then they sang a song about Texas that had nothing to do with Texas. This show makes me laugh every time, and I love that it’s always different thanks to audience participation. People were good sports for this show.

I had an idea from watching a video by Molly from AllEars (at the time) that we could watch the fireworks from the People Mover. It wasn’t at all crowded and I thought it was a great time to rest on the ride.



We jumped on at 9:12pm, just 8 minutes before the fireworks were starting. We caught some of the fireworks toward the end of our first ride and asked if we could stay on for a second round. There was no line, so they let us.



It was really magical, seeing the fireworks, the castle lit up and hearing the music from the People Mover.



I took a short video but mostly tried to just enjoy the experience.



I had one last ride on my bucket list for the day – Space Mountain. Pat initially said he wasn’t going to ride it because he doesn’t like how it shakes him up, but he made a last-minute decision to go with me. I made a LL for us for Space Mountain and for the rest of our family at the Teacups, which was the last ride the girls wanted to go on.

We arrived at 9:40pm. The posted wait time was 40 minutes, we waited about 8 minutes. I can’t begin to describe how much I love Space Mountain. It’s not just my favorite Mountain, but my favorite ride at MK.



It was 10pm when we met up with the rest of my family. The park was open for another hour, but we had ridden everything on our must-do list and were exhausted. We also had to be up early the next day for Animal Kingdom, so we decided to call it a night.

 

[jrmint427]

Wrapping up at Magic Kingdom​

I remembered to try the castle filter in MDE just as we were leaving.



There was a mess in the street next to our family while we were taking pictures. A CM who was cleaning nearby offered to take our picture, but then asked if we could let him clean up that mess before he did, because he didn’t want it in our picture. That was very nice of him, I hadn’t even noticed it as we were taking our pictures. But the mess ended up being sticky and difficult to clean, and we were tired and decided we were okay with the pictures we already had, so we headed toward the exit rather than waiting for the CM to finish.

There’s just something magical about the castle at night.



The girls suddenly remembered they hadn’t done any shopping this day. We had given them each $50 for souvenirs for the trip and it was burning a hole in their pocket. We walked through the Emporium but didn’t see anything they really wanted within their budget. They decided they wanted to save some money for later in the trip, so we left empty handed.



As we were leaving, I asked a CM if the Ferry or Monorail would be quicker. Both appeared to have very long lines. The CM said he couldn’t say, both would be about the same, so we were leaning toward Ferry. A little further down, another CM was encouraging people to take the Ferry, saying it was faster than the Monorail at that time, so we felt good about our decision.

We got in line for the ferry at 10:18pm. The line was winding, and someone coughed in my face without covering their mouth. I put on my mask even though we were outside and was glad I did, as someone else literally sneezed in my face a minute later. I did pretty well this day with the crowds and not worrying so much about germs, but I was so disappointed people weren’t at least covering their mouth/nose when we were crammed so close together. Spoiler: I got Covid at the end of this trip and was convinced it was from being coughed and sneezed on in the line for the ferry. We made it to the other side at 10:39pm, were in our van by 10:52pm and back at our hotel room at 11:09pm. I showered and went to bed a little after 11:30pm, ready to get up before 7am again the next day!

A few stats to summarize our MK day:

• We walked 22,931 steps / 9.16 miles
• We went on 19 rides/shows (not including parade + fireworks)
• We used 1 ILL and 7 LLs
• TouringPlans predicted the crowd level was going to be 5/10, actual was 6/10
• We spent 165 minutes (2.75 hours) in lines; that’s an average wait time of 8.68 minutes per attraction – not bad at all!
• I estimated we saved 292 minutes (almost 5 hours) with Genie+
• For our family of 4, Genie+ cost $60, so that means we paid $0.20 per minute saved or $0.05 per person per minute saved
• We paid $0.16 per minute saved per person for the 7DMT ILL (80 minutes for $76.68), so not quite as good value per minute (3x the cost), but it saved us over an hour of time spent waiting in line

On average we paid $111.45 per ticket to MK this day. When divided by the 19 rides/attractions, we paid $5.87 per person per ride. I know that’s not a totally fair way to look at the ticket price because that doesn’t include things like the parade, fireworks, impromptu cavalcade and hoedown, and all those other little moments that make a day at MK special, but I was curious how the math would work out.

Overall, I don’t love the Genie+ system because it makes planning in advance difficult (and by in advance, I mean even a few hours ahead during the day), but I was so glad we had it at MK because we saved almost 5 hours of waiting in lines. We wouldn’t have been able to ride or see everything that we did in one day without it. It’s a personal decision about whether the extra price is worth it, but when I see that we only paid $0.05 per minute saved per person, it feels worth it to me. The ILL, on the other hand, was not worth it for our family, but only because half our party didn’t end up enjoying that ride, so it was a lot to spend ($76.68 for 6 people) for a somewhat disappointing experience.

 

[jrmint427]

Sunday, June 12, 2022​

Animal Kingdom Morning​

We were up early so we could hopefully rope drop AK at 8:00am. Our original plan was to rope drop Safaris and then see what had short lines / what we could get with Genie+. But then I was able to score an 8:00am LL for Na’vi River Journey right at 7:00am, so we didn’t rush so much in the morning, deciding to start there so we could pick up another LL right away.

We left our resort at 7:39am and were parked by 7:50am, we were basically staying right next to Animal Kingdom. The actual drive was only a couple of minutes.

We were through security at 8:07am. We were walking up right at 8:00am and I asked my family to hang back a minute while I booked an ILL for 3 of us for Flight of Passage. Since we were staying offsite, I couldn’t book until right at park opening (8:00am), while resort guests were able to book at 7:00am. Our time was 4:30-5:30pm. I was just glad we were able to get a slot. The price was $14 per person, so our total was $44.73 with taxes.

We were on a mission to go straight to Pandora, but I wanted to stop for tree pictures before we were too hot and sweaty later in the day. This turned out to be a good decision because I definitely would have forgotten about the tree pictures later on. We waited for just a couple parties ahead of us.




I was excited to see the Love wall and figured we’d come back later for pictures there. It's a good thing we did, because there was a PhotoPass photographer posted here later on.



We arrived in Pandora at 8:20am



The floating mountains get me every time. It’s just such an amazing sight to walk up on.



The posted wait time for Na’vi River Journey was 45 minutes but we basically walked right on with less than a 5-minute wait. This is a beautiful and peaceful ride, it was a great way to start our day.




As we were getting on the ride, the app wasn’t letting me book our next LL. I couldn't figure out why, and eventually closed the app out so I could enjoy the ride. One of my biggest concerns with Genie+ was that it would require my attention to the point where I would be on it constantly while on rides and in shows and not able to enjoy what I was experiencing. So, I tried to avoid that. But it was stressful knowing we were missing out on booking the next LL as early as we could have.

As we were getting off the ride, I realized in the app that DD5 hadn’t scanned into Na’vi River Journey. When I said that out loud my dad said, "Oh yeah, I didn’t think she hit hers at the second post." I made a LL for the rest of us for Safaris and thought I’d need to find a blue umbrella to help us add DD5, but first asked the CM at the entrance of Na’vi if there was any way to mark that DD5 had used her LL. He was actually able to help, and I was able to get a LL for her just 5 minutes later than the rest of our party, so I never ended up stopping at a blue umbrella.

We were in need of coffee at this point, so we stopped at Creature Comforts, which is my favorite Starbucks of all time. We picked up coffee and breakfast foods and found tables in the shade at Pizzafari, not too far away. It was nice to have a lazier morning vs. rushing from place to place.

We wrapped up breakfast around 9:10am. I figured we had time for a quick lap around the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail before the next Lion King show, so that is where we headed next. We stopped to see the otters, my favorite animal (and the favorite of many in our family), but three of them were taking a nap in the sun.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Several updates behind but catching up.

I totally feel your pain with kids being unpredictable in what they won't like about rides! There were a few I thought my girls would love that they absolutely hated. But, it sounds like a great MK day overall even if you hit a few snags.

 

[jrmint427]

Several updates behind but catching up.

I totally feel your pain with kids being unpredictable in what they won't like about rides! There were a few I thought my girls would love that they absolutely hated. But, it sounds like a great MK day overall even if you hit a few snags.

Glad you're still here! Overall MK was a great day, even if my youngest didn't love all the rides! We're still negotiating which she will and won't ride on our upcoming trip... Frozen Ever After and Pirates are the two I'm still advocating for, but she did agree to ride Haunted Mansion again. We agreed she does not have to ride 7DMT.

 

[jrmint427]

Gorilla Falls, Lion King, Rafiki’s Planet Watch​

We started the Gorilla Falls trail at 9:18am. The next Lion King show was at 10am, but I knew we needed to get there a little early, so we had to rush this walk a bit.



We saw some monkeys along the way and talked to a CM for a few minutes about the monkey family. She was very knowledgeable and had a lot of background. After that we pretty much walked right through to get to the gorillas.



There was a cute baby gorilla who did a somersault and I managed to catch that on video! Next up was a quick bathroom break.



We then booked it to the Lion King show. We were cutting it close but were sat by 9:53am for the 10:00am show. We were pretty far back but still had a decent view. A CM was talking to our section about the importance of drinking water this day because of how hot it was. She said she saw people pass out every single day and it always turned out that they hadn’t drank any water. If only I had known how relevant that lecture would turn out to be. I drank water this day but apparently not enough as looking back, I was developing heat exhaustion symptoms by lunch time.

I love the Festival of the Lion King! The quality of the actors, music, and set are just incredible.



I was bummed we didn’t get to see the tumbler monkeys. For some reason I had thought they had returned by our trip, but I saw later they weren’t coming back until July. The “birds” were there and dancing but not up in the air. It was still an amazing show.

After the show we took the Wildlife Express Train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. We were able to walk right onto the train.




We arrived around 10:50am.



This is when I started to not feel so well. I was feeling very tired and a little sick to my stomach. I finished the water we had and asked for more. I think Pat and my dad found a vending machine where they picked up a few more waters. We went inside the building and the others walked around, but I found a wall and just sat.

We eventually went back outside to see the goats and pigs. I took a few pictures of the girls and then went and found another seat in the shade.




We spent awhile here. The girls had brushes and loved running around petting and brushing both the goats and pigs. We eventually walked to the train so we could make it back for the beginning of our LL window for the Safaris. We were also going to finally meet up with my friend from high school who managed to get a slot for the Safaris that overlapped with our time. We got back to the main station at 11:42am.

 

[jrmint427]

Safaris​

I was so excited to see my friend! I couldn't remember the last time we saw each other, I want to say it was 2018 or 2019. She was with her husband and 13-year-old daughter. I remember holding her daughter shortly after she was born, so it’s crazy to me that she is already a teenager. It was fun to get to spend time with her too. We met up in the LL for Safaris.



I lost track of time (that's what happens when catching up with a friend you haven't seen in years!) but even in the LL line we had a bit of a wait, maybe 15 minutes. But the posted wait time was 65 minutes, so Genie+ saved us a lot of time. It was a good Safari.





The female lion was up and walking around, which I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen before. They sleep most of the day! As we drove around the lions, she walked over to the male who was sleeping.




An ostrich got super close to our vehicle.




There was a new scene that I didn’t remember from our last trip in 2019.



After we finished our safari, we decided that we would go to lunch together at Satu’li Canteen. We put in our mobile orders before walking over.

 

[jrmint427]

Satu’li Canteen​

Satu’li Canteen is my favorite quick service at all of the Disney parks. I love that the food is unique, and they make the best tofu on property. This is always a must-do for us.

We ordered our food on the mobile app a little before 1:00pm and headed toward Pandora. We sat outside for a bit while we waited for the text that our food was ready. My parents somehow found a table that would seat all 9 of us!

I ordered the girls each a cheese quesadilla plate, which came with vegetable chips and a Mandarin. DD7 said she liked the quesadilla but not the chips.



My dad had the grilled beef with noodles bowl.



My mom doesn’t love Satu’li bowls as much as the rest of us, but she discovered on our last trip that she likes the hot dog wrapped in dough, so that is what she always gets now.



Pat ordered the combination bowl, which came with beef and chicken, which he ordered with the rice.



I always order the Crispy Fried Tofu bowl with the Sweet Potato Hash and Creamy Herb Dressing. It’s amazing. But I could tell I really wasn’t feeling well because I could hardly eat my food. I felt so sick to my stomach. I picked at it and ate most of the tofu, but the potato was a little too heavy for me. I was definitely experiencing heat exhaustion. I drank a ton of water and hoped it would pass quickly. It was a bummer to miss out on eating what is usually one of my favorite meals of the trip.



One of our friends ordered the Cheeseburger Steamed Pods – Bao Buns. These always look so good to me, I wish Disney would make a vegetarian version. I think it would be easy to sub the burger inside with Impossible or Beyond products instead of meat!



I ordered a few desserts for our family to share, one chocolate cake and 2 of the blueberry cream cheese mousse.




The chocolate cake is just okay to me, I don’t love chocolate mousse. But the Blueberry dessert tastes like a tart cheesecake and I love the passion fruit curd on top with it. There’s something about this dessert that works well for me. But I was feeling so bad that I couldn’t take more than a bite of it. It didn’t go to waste though!

It was so nice to visit with my friend and her family over lunch, and to be sitting in the A/C while we hung out. As we were finishing eating, our husbands went to the stand outside and each got a Night Blossom (limeade, apple, and desert pear with passion fruit pearls). I took one sip, it was good!



We finished eating a little after 2pm and decided to split up. I had gotten a LL for me and Pat to ride Everest, and my parents were planning to take the girls to TriceraTop Spin. Our friends were able to get a pass for the husband to ride with me and Pat, since my friend and her daughter didn’t want to ride, but they walked over with us. We passed Kevin on our way, but didn’t have time to stop since we were getting to the end of our LL window. I was glad our friends managed to catch her later in the day!

 

[jrmint427]

Expedition Everest, Dinosaur and Nemo​

We got to Expedition Everest at 2:28pm, I think this was just 2 minutes before our LL window was ending, but we made it! The standby line was 35 minutes and we waited maybe 5 minutes, pretty much walking right on. I took some ibuprofen before going on this and was debating how smart it was to ride this coaster when I already felt sick to my stomach. Our friend offered to let us ride in front of him, but I was legitimately worried I might throw up on this ride and suggested it was better if he rode in front of us. But Everest is one of my favorite rides, I couldn’t skip it!



I did alright, was definitely feeling woozy at moments, but I absolutely love the rush, especially the part where you are pulled backward. I was glad we rode it!

We decided to keep hanging out together, and our friends suggested Dinosaur. I actually kind of hate the ride, but I really like my friends and figured, why not. I texted my parents to ask if they were still good with our kids and they were. I booked us a LL but couldn’t get one right away, our window wasn’t for almost another hour. Our friends had the DAS pass with an earlier time. We figured we would at least ask if we could combine our times so we could ride together, and if they said no, I wasn’t going to be too sad about not riding.

As we were walking over, we passed the Finding Nemo theater. I was SUPER bummed because it was announced that the show was returning the day after our Animal Kingdom day. So bummed that I tried to talk my family into adding another park day later on in our trip just so we could see the new Nemo show, but it wasn’t going to work out with our schedule and my family wasn’t willing to buy another park day ticket just for a few hours at AK. But then I had seen on social media the day before that there had been a soft opening with a few performances. So, I asked the CM outside the theater if there were any showings this day. And there were! She told us to come back in an hour and said there might be one more later show after that, but it wasn’t guaranteed since it was just a soft opening to prepare for the next day. I was so excited!

When we got to Dinosaur my friend explained our situation to the CM (I think she even explained how we were high school besties who ran into each other this day!) and asked if it was possible to combine our times so we could ride together. The CM was very nice and said as long as we had Genie+ and a LL booked for Dinosaur (we did), she would help us to move up our time. The standby wait was only 15 minutes. I was seriously nervous about riding, but my friend’s daughter tried to calm me down and said she would ride with me.

I was such a baby! I don’t know why this ride scares me so much but I think it’s the scariest ride in all the parks – it’s scarier than Tower of Terror for me! I hid when we got to the T-rex.



We met up with my parents and the girls near the exit of the ride and walked back to the theater to catch the Finding Nemo soft opening. We got there at 3:23pm for the 3:30pm show. The theater was already pretty full considering the show wasn’t announced or posted anywhere, but we got good seats. The show was delayed, they kept announcing it would start in a few minutes. A number of people bailed while waiting, and the people right in front of us moved to be closer, so we had a pretty good view. The show started 13-14 minutes late.



It was so good! It felt very similar to the previous show, I couldn't tell you what all of the differences were, maybe the narration had changed? But it was a lot of the same songs.






I was so glad we caught this show! In addition to being indoors in the A/C, this such an amazing production and the actors are so talented. The show wrapped up a little after 4:00pm.

 

[Disney102015]

enjoying following along! So cool you caught a soft opening! What a great trip to combine work and Disney!

 

[jrmint427]

enjoying following along! So cool you caught a soft opening! What a great trip to combine work and Disney!

Thanks for following along! We felt very lucky for both - being able to work remote to extend our trip and to catch the soft opening!

 

[jrmint427]

It’s Tough to be a Bug, Shopping, Flight of Passage​

My dad claims It’s Tough to be a Bug is one of his favorite rides. I say claims because I think he just likes to make fun of me. I told him there was no way I was going on that one this year but he wanted to go anyway. The girls also refused to go on it. I can’t remember if I made a LL for my mom, dad and Pat, but we walked over with them. The standby line was only 10 minutes so they probably just jumped in that.

The girls had been begging to shop, so I took them in a nearby store and we walked around. They both ended up with a stuffed animal. DD7 got a small Minnie (which she says was a “mini Minnie”) and DD5 picked out a Raja baby that she just HAD to have.



I was glad they were happy! Our friends met up with us again at the shop. We took a quick picture of our daughters with some of the 50th statues.



My mom confirmed that I made the right decision to not go on Bug’s Life. It was finally time to ride Flight of Passage with our ILL! Our window started at 5:10pm. Our friends managed to get a DAS pass for the same time, so we all walked over together. It was pretty amazing how well the DAS pass and LLs were able to line up so we could go on rides together most of the day.

We stopped for a few pictures on the way. I love a good picture wall with a photo pass photographer!



I didn’t realize you could rub this plant you see walking into Pandora to make it mist – we enjoyed the chance to cool down.



I could spend an entire day in Pandora. It’s beautiful and relaxing back there.





My dad doesn’t ride FOP because of motion sickness, and the girls didn’t want to ride, so he took them to walk around the gift shop while the rest of us went on it. We got in line around 5:15pm. The standby wait was 85 minutes and we waited about 5 minutes before getting into the preshow. It was $14 per person, or $44.73 with tax for the three of us, which means we paid $0.56 per minute saved (or $0.19 per person per minute saved), which isn’t too bad. This is one ride I do think is worth the ILL.

We enjoyed the pre-show, and I see now the guy behind us was smiling for our picture!



I still think this is my favorite ride ever. It’s amazing how you can really feel like you are flying around Pandora. This one will never get old for me. I think this was the first time I rode it where I took my eyes off the screen to look around – I’ve always forgotten to before because it’s so immersive. I realized how high up we were (we had climbed stairs to be at the very top) and got a little nervous, but then focused back on the screen and was fine.