I would say yes!
That’s the first time I’ve seen a photo of it since they changed it.
Yeah I just love it! The two of them make such good ride buddies. And it’s totally authentic as they had no idea where the camera spot for this ride is.
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Wednesday, April 19 – Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios
Today was the most flexible day of the vacation, as before the trip we had a few different ideas we were deciding between and/or combining:
- I’d made park reservations for Hollywood Studios – but we had already hit all the headliner attractions in a LL-stacked Sunday eve flurry
- We had planned to visit a water park for those who wanted to (and it turns out all of our kids wanted to!)
- I thought DW and DD9 would head to Disney Springs for some shopping and the rest of us would meet them there (so we had a 5 p.m. T. Rex dinner reservation booked).
The kids were super excited about going to a water park for their first time ever. However, this was also the coolest day of the trip and the forecast was mostly overcast so we decided to swap our Wed and Thurs plans and make this our animal kingdom day. This is a good example where not booking fast passes 60+ days in advance is a real plus as we almost certainly would not have given up our FoP fast passes 3 years ago to optimize weather-related activities. We decided to buy G+ and get an ILL for FoP in mid morning. We were moving a bit too slowly for EE rope drop but opting for a Lyft vs. waiting for the bus, we hit AK right around 8:10 a.m.
We headed straight to our Kilimanjaro Safaris LL. Standby wait was posted at 15 minutes and looked shorter than that, so this would have been fine for us without G+. KS was a highlight for DS11 as he just loved taking photos and learning about each animal. DD9 took a ton of photos too. My wife and I lent them our phones so between us we have about countless animal pictures that look something like this:
But practice makes perfect, positioning helps (we were in the back row) and taking more photos is probably most important of all so they got a few real gems too:
After that, DS13, DS11 and I headed over to ride Expedition Everest while the others took their time getting coffee and heading to meet Mickey & Minnie at Wilderness Outpost. They couldn’t find it for a while, but eventually did and had a great visit:
We rode EE once in standby (and had snagged NRJ LLs for all of us for later in the morning). Once was enough for me but the boys wanted to ride again so did.
The line moved very quickly at that time in the morning, around 9:30. DS13 lost his phone on the 2nd ride but he realized very quickly and we headed back to the exit and sure enough they had it for him. DW and the others were still looking for the Wilderness Outpost so we rode Dinosaur. We all agreed it was the worst ride we’d done at Disney, pretty much feeling like we were being thrown around and jerked back and forth with few if any redeeming elements. Complaining about how bad it was a source of amusement for the rest of the trip. This ride photo doesn’t appropriately reflect our dissatisfaction with the experience 
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After a few photos and some time to recover from the whiplash we wandered over to Pandora and all rode FoP. It was the 1st time for DS6 and Dad, but everybody was amazed by the experience. And it was a great use of the ILL in time saved (and because we didn’t arrive early enough to rope drop, nor were we planning to stay until the end of the day). We then rode NRJ in LL and ate a tasty and relatively healthy early lunch at Satuli Canteen. DS11 was disappointed that the Pandora Rangers mini-show is no longer happening but was excited to see a mech:
It was about 12:20 and we’d done the rides we wanted to do at that point. So we wandered over to the 1 p.m show of Nemo, also a first time (used LL which helped us get better seats but certainly not necessary), but not before stopping for a great character meet with Chip and Dale in their dino costumes (another family fav particularly for DW, DD9 and DS6 from our previous trip).
After Nemo, DW remarked that although prices have gone up a lot at Disney since when she first went in 2000 or so, quality has also gone up significantly. For instance, Dinosaur was the main / only thrill ride attraction at AK back then!
With one show done, we had some time to kill before the 3 p.m. showing of FotLK so we split up again with me taking DS13 and DS11 on one more trip down EE (this time via a LL) and then Kali River Rapids (LL), which had been closed for winter refurbishment on our previous trip. We found Kali fun but very short, not nearly as good as Jurassic Park River Adventure we decided. We got splashed but nobody in our boat got particularly wet, which we chalked up to having several kids and lighter adults (the others, not me) so not a lot of weight. We were still hot so bought some iced drinks to cool down and then met up with the rest of the family in Africa; DD9 and DS6 had been playing in the Boneyard. We were elephants for FotLK and everybody enjoyed the show with the tumble monkeys and flame spinner as our favorite performances, though so impressed by the agility of the stilt walkers and of course the “bird”.
After the show we debated walking some trails or hopping to another park for some rides. We’re generally not big zoo people, so the rides won out so we caught the bus to Hollywood studios and all rode TSMM and then split up for DW, DS13 and DS11 to do ToT while dad, DD9, DS6 and I did MFSR. These rides helped justify our G+ purchase today as we really didn’t need it for AK if we were willing to skip NRJ mid-morning (which we were, we only rode it because we knew we wouldn’t need to wait and were already in Pandora).
We then met up for bowls at Fairfax Fare. I had to rush back with DS13 for his CTY course so we walked back briskly while the others lingered a bit. After presenting 3 options to get back, they opted for the skyliner as DS6 and Dad had enjoyed that so much on the previous trip. DW and DD9 both declared the Skyliner “the worst ride ever” (due to fear of heights, though this has never come up on a chair lift while skiing or in a previous gondola up a mountain) while DS6 was thrilled to ride it again. Ice cream back at the Boardwalk improved everybody’s mood though!
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Wow this photo!! 
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Thanks! No expertise on my end, just an iPhone and a great sunset.
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Thursday – Hollywood Studios morning, Typhoon Lagoon afternoon
We decided to rope drop Hollywood Studios so got an early start to the day. Dad didn’t want to come and we later got a text from him saying he has a sore throat and "doesn’t have much pep today” so will stay in the room. We rope dropped slinky, arriving to the park about 15 min before the start of early entry. We had about a 10 min wait. It would have been 5 except for a nearly 100 person tour group who all walked through the lightning lane right as they started running the ride. I had assumed (and heard) that there was no use of the LL during EE, so this seemed a bit frustrating to have this many folks just march to the front. But it was a minor inconvenience and we still had a great ride, very scenic with the morning light.
From there we walked on to TSMM and immediately did it again. On the second go, DW got the high score of the trip for the family at 161,400. She was so thrilled (and I was happy for her too, even though I’d had the high score in the vehicle on all previous rides).
At that point, EE was over so we rode SDD via the LL booked at 7 a.m. From there we got our breakfast ronto wraps and slowed down a bit. We had about 45 min to kill before heading into Indiana Jones so the girls went to get coffee and look in gift shops while the boys explored Batuu some more, including dropping into Oga’s (we decided not to get anything except a few photos), sharing two orders of blue milk, taking photos and riding Star Tours through an unnecessary LL.
We then met up at 10:25 for the 1st Indy show of the day (at 10:45). While at our seats DS6 realized he no longer had his magic band. Thankfully we knew we had it for star tours (because we’d used the unnecessary LL) and had 10 min to showtime so I got out, headed to the Star Tours exit and sure enough a cast member had collected it from our shuttle. The cast members were friendly and very efficient here, and I was back in my seat for Indy with a few minutes to spare.
After the show which we all loved (though DW and I missed the audience participation and cast member plant part that’s no longer there) we caught a Lyft to Typhoon Lagoon. This was the perfect day for it, maybe 84 degrees and sunny. We staked out a spot with some shade and made some sand castles while our sunscreen set in. It’s so great that all the kids even DS13 still like making sand structures together!
We then divided up with me taking DS6 wherever he wanted to go (as a non-swimmer, he still needs 1:1 attention), while DW watched the older 3 who wanted to check out the wave pool. DS6 and I took the lazy River most of the way around the park. We got off near Miss Adventure Falls only to learn it was temporarily closed. So we backtracked to Gangplank Falls and did it instead (with no wait). DS6 didn’t like getting drenched but as we were getting out we ran into DS13 and DS11 who were excited to try the slide, so I twisted DS6’s arm and we all rode it together. I then sent the older boys on their way to Keelhaul Falls and DS6 and I returned to our chairs. DS6 greatly expanded the sand castle structure while I was happy to just lounge. We then ate a late lunch from Leaning Palms. After lunch DW went back to watching DS13 in the wave pool, me staying with DS6, and DD9 and DS11 doing the lazy river together. DS6 did kiddie slides by blustery bay and lots of sand castle time. There was a momentary panic when DD9 came back without DS11 (and they didn’t have their AirTags as I wasn’t sure how waterproof they were). But eventually he found his way back to us. The family came to the conclusion that we’d want to do a waterpark day / afternoon on any subsequent trip provided the weather was nice.
At 4:30 we packed up and headed back to the Boardwalk. We checked on dad who had been sick and sleeping almost all day, got a Covid test via instacart for him (negative!).
With dad still resting, we then headed to a 6:40 dinner reservation at Beaches & Cream which was excellent! Everybody loved the food and the vibe. We did not get the Kitchen sink but between Mickey sundaes and various shakes, we all got what we wanted for dessert and left very satisfied. My non-culinary highlight during dinner was when a frozen LL I’d booked for 8-9 pm during a late afternoon drop converted to a golden ticket valid for any non-ILL at any park the following day. Perfect for tomorrow’s Magic Kingdom! For those keeping score at home, this is the third high value golden ticket we’d received in just 5 days, and our best one yet! We then had a relatively early bedtime, with everybody falling asleep very quickly given the energy spent at Typhoon Lagoon.
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Hope your dad felt better after sleeping most of that day!
It’s great how your family can do some things as a whole group but also split up into various smaller combos for different activities. I’d guess it makes for more quality time with individual members when your attention isn’t constantly yanked in six directions.
Also, I love your expressions in this photo:
Looks like Chip is saying something inappropriate. 
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Yes, Chip has been known to have a potty mouth!
With a large family and different preferences among both kids and adults for intensity of rides, importance of shopping, need for coffee, etc. it’s really great to be able to split up for periods of time, but typically about 1/3 of our park time. Meals, shows and several broad-appeal rides / attractions – e.g. BTMM or 7DMT or TSI in MK, Soarin’ or Remy or any of the pavilion movies in Epcot, KS or NRJ in AK, TSMM or SDD or MFSR – then bring us back together for the majority of the time. Everybody wins and my wife, dad and I all love the 1:1 or 2:1 time with the kids.
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Don’t you mean pottery mouth?
Sorry, I’ll show myself out.
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More to come but thankfully he was fully recharged by the next morning. But his text that he “doesn’t have much pep today” was the understatement of our trip. I would equate “not much pep” as saying “maybe I shouldn’t walk 5+ miles today.” But for him, it meant that he needed to spend about 21 of the next 24 hours asleep…
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Friday, April 21 – Magic Kingdom day 2, hopping back to Hollywood Studios
At 7 a.m. I got Tron BG1 (via BG1, learned to press exactly as it turned to 7:00:00) and a 9 a.m. Space Mountain LL on my wife’s phone. We got to the park around 8:20 for an 8:30 EE. DS13, DS11 and I went to Tron and learned it would be 8:50 or so before calling groups. Space was posting a 20 minute wait at this point so we rode Buzz twice (both walk-ons) and I taught the boys where the 100k targets were. DS11 caught on with a couple 100k+ scores (I was in 620-650k range on both rides) and we had some fun with the ride photos:
We then went to Tron just as it was opening up and walked on and were among the first to ride in a half full light cycle. It was a great ride but, yes, very quick. I had no regrets not spending $20 a pop for another ride in ILL (maybe it would make sense to ride it again in the evening given the lights, but I knew we wouldn’t still be in MK at that time).
The others were getting coffee for DW and taking their time enjoying Main St. They headed to Tomorrowland and had a handoff for us so I could add DS6 to our group for Space Mountain. They rode the People Mover while we did this. By then DS13 was hungry again (a recurring theme on this trip!) so we stopped for a snack near Tron and re-sunscreened and then walked to Fantasyland via Tron to ride the railroad to Frontierland for a Big Thunder Mountain LL (which was for later in the morning but didn’t matter with our golden ticket).
We saw the Barnstormer and recalled that our youngest loved riding that with his grandpa so we got instant lightning lanes and the two of them did that while the rest of us relaxed in the shade.
Then we hopped onto the railroad (with no wait at this stop, unlike at main st) and used our LL on Big Thunder, a family fav. The kids spotted this Hidden Mickey in the queue:
A couple members of the group were dragging a bit so we had a family chat and then went to Pecos Bill’s for an early lunch of nachos, tacos and fajitas. The meal was a good reset button (plus lots of water). We then headed to Tom Sawyer island which we’d loved 3 years ago and wasn’t sure if the kids had outgrown but DS13 was the most excited for. Thankfully nobody had outgrown it, and the kids just loved running around with so much freedom. Knowing we’d done the major rides we wanted to at MK, I had caught a lightning lane at HS for slinky so a plan was coming together here, as I strived to get the most rides we could while we had this golden or platinum ticket!
On TSI, we played some checkers, shot at the trains on big thunder, took videos on the shake shake bridge, explored the caves, etc. for a wonderful, unstructured and fairly relaxing hour in a busy theme park vacation!
After that it was not quite time to head to Hollywood and our two hours had expired since booking Slinky so I got us a LL for jungle cruise and rode that. Three members of the group were seated near the back of the boat which was a much worse experience than the previous trip due to the engine noise being louder than the skipper’s jokes. But we still enjoyed it and liked seeing which jokes were unique and which were repeated. Although we could park hop at this point, DW still wanted some time on Main St. while DS6 wanted to ride Buzz so just the two of us headed there while the others got popcorn and rested in the shade. Of all my kids, I’d probably had the least 1:1 time on this trip with DS6; I was very excited to hang out with him.
Okay I might have posed a little for this ride photo 
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The other group was in no rush and DS6 wanted to do something more so we followed Buzz up with Monsters Inc. laugh floor. I played the role of Mike W. But only one audience joke was chosen which seemed like a missed opportunity (we’d submitted two, neither were chosen).
We then met up and headed to Hollywood studios where we rode Slinky for the 4th time of the trip followed by TSMM for the 5th time. I got within 200 points of my wife’s high score from the day before; she was reluctant to ride again as she didn’t want to be dethroned! I felt like we were really getting good value out of our park hoppers and G+ (and today’s golden ticket!).
DS6 then wanted to ride Tower of Terror for the first time and we felt like he could handle it so we split up again with DW taking the 3 boys there while I rode MFSR with DD9 and Dad. We had our best run of the trip with 10,700 profit (though I later learned that Dad as engineer didn’t look forward at all, just focusing on his flashing lights!). The Hondo animatronic was also running for the first time of our trip and adds nicely to the immersion.
This is us trying to look tough but confident given our strong performance on MFSR:
A bit tired and with just enough time we caught the boat back to Boardwalk for dinner at Big River eating outside with great weather (not too hot by that point) and nice views. We grabbed ice cream for those who wanted it and then bed!
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Great photos of your family! Lots there would be great framed!!
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Love it 
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How’d the 6yo do with ToT? My 4 year old loves a kiddie version of it at the local amusement park and really wants to try it this trip. He’s tall enough but I’m worried the effects may be too scary or the drop(s) too intense… it’s been about 15 years since I last rode it myself….
He loved it and did great. See below (with DW holding his neck for any concerns of hitting the back of the seat, but likely just overcautious!):
I will note that DD9 did not like the ride at all on our last trip when she was 6. She had no interest in riding it on this trip, which meant a couple extra rides on ASS and MFSR for her!
It might be worth showing a video of the pre-show / walkthrough in advance just to help your 4 year old prepare? I’ve done that for HM as well and I think it’s helpful.
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My 6 yo DD LOVED it (and made fun of me for taking the chicken elevator ).
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Saturday, April 22 – Epcot Day 2 (and last full day)
We started our day with Minnie’s Beach Bash at Cape May Cafe. This was a highlight of the last trip (which we also did on our final day) so DW was excited to book this again. We had a nice time but the character brunch this time felt unnecessary (and obviously quite expensive). The character interaction was cool, but our kids were just less entranced by that than they were 3 years ago on a first visit. Comparing my pictures from our trip 3 years ago to ones now, it’s astounding just how much our kids’ attention has changed – When they were 3 and 6 respectively, DS6 and DD9 did so many character meets! Still we had a very nice time at Cape May:
We also were a bit more focused on where we were headed – particularly the dolphin experience for DD9 and DW which we’d tried to book a month before our trip but then a spot had opened up when DW had looked 3 days previously. After a filling breakfast we were on our way to Epcot, with the girls headed to the front of the park (and then the Seas), the older boys and I to GotG (bg1 only, no ILL today) and test track LL while dad took DS6 to mission space (green). It was a 20 min wait to the first preshow at about 9:50 a.m. for GotG, and a great ride (September).
We then had a blast on test track. We spent a bit more time in the design and driving sections after the ride, and each designed our own vehicle which we saved to our magic bands and then rode single rider (<5 min wait). I got my highest design score of the trip with 218 with a pretty ugly but efficient buggy.
By then DS6 and Dad had headed to the Seas so we met up with them there, skipping Nemo and entering via the exit. We saw the manatees (DS13’s favorite animal since a young age; he swam with them near Tampa on his last trip) and around noon we were looking at dolphins from below and it seemed they were being fed or engaging with humans above - we guessed this was one of the primary interactions from the dolphin experience that DW and DD9 were participating in and later learned we were right!
We then headed to Canada for some poutine, checking off another country from our eat around the world quest. It was tasty but poutine is an awfully heavy choice for a hot Florida day!
At that point it was time to head back to the hotel for swim but I had got a LL for Remys previously (for the 3 of us who had G+) and I was excited to ride again so DS11 and DS6 went with me. I was really trying to get more value from LL than just Test Track. I had been on the fence to buy but the price was only $18 and I figured we should for convenience. In hindsight we should have skipped G+ and just ridden TT twice in single rider but I didn’t know there were design stations in the single rider queue or that our designs from the stations after the ride would carry over to our next ride. We had a nice final ride on Remy – which I really do love – and then back to room for some food, sunscreen and then pool time.
My wife and I have mixed thoughts on pool time at Disney. The kids definitely enjoy it, but it seems like something you can do anywhere, whereas there’s so much at Disney you can only do at Disney. But seeing them play together in the pool is always special.
We then got ready to go for our 4:30 reservation at Via Napoli. We were a bit rushed with DW and DD9 a bit behind, so we split into two groups. The rest of us got through security fine but then there were technical issue with the automatic scanner so they had to wand everybody down one-on-one. With this technical breakdown, a big line quickly formed and DW and DD9 were standing in the hot Florida sun for about 10-15 min also making us very tight for our dinner time. DD9 very nearly fainted so she had to sit at a bench. We then split up as I raced to Italy for our reservation (with DS13 and DS11), with Dad and DS6 behind (Dad without his phone so we couldn’t communicate with him) and DW staying with DD9. As I got to Italy learned that DD9 couldn’t make it (she got dizzy again on the bridge to France and had to sit right there, couldn’t even make it back to a bench in the shade). We tried to reach Dad but couldn’t, though he was only a few min behind us. We decided we’d all return to the International Gateway area and not have a portion of us do the dinner in Italy. I explained the situation to the Maitre D at via Napoli who was reluctant to let us off hook without a cancellation fee (despite this all being prompted by the security breakdown which led to heat exhaustion for DD9) but after a little persistence they worked it out for us. Sergio the juggler was just starting so Dad and the 3 boys watched that while I rushed back (and asked them to follow back after the show, which they did). They gave very positive reviews for Sergio! I brought water for DD9 and then we all got crepes that we ate on benches in shade by the IG. These were tasty but we were disappointed we wouldn’t get to complete our eat around the world!
We took the boat back to boardwalk and DS13, DS11, Dad and I rented a 4 person Surrey Bike for 3 loops around the Boardwalk area while DW, DD9 and DS6 headed back to the room for a bit. DS13 had been asking to do this all trip, and it was surprisingly fun. The seven of us all then enjoyed ice cream to end the night, with DD9 feeling refreshed at this point. Or rather DW and I had lots of organizing and packing in our room to end the night but ice cream together was a nice culmination to a good day but one that fell off the rails at dinner time.
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Beautiful dolphin photos! I did not know about this experience at Epcot–I’m so glad you reported on it!
I hate that DD9 was feeling poorly that day, but it sounds like she was able to overcome it eventually. Heat exhaustion is no fun, and it’s definitely scary as a parent!!
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