Laura_hastings TRIP REPORT: TP's worked like a charm for this first timer!

[Laura_hastings]

This trip report is for my family: Me, DH, DS7 & DS4. It was the first time to ever to WDW for DH and both kiddos. We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge Wednesday May 29 – Tuesday June 4th. I have been pretty active on Touring Plans since November 2018 and learned SO MUCH from all of you. It definitely paid off because our Touring Plans worked like a charm, so THANK YOU!

Extras that I discuss and review that some may be interested in: Early Morning Magic- Fantasyland, Early Morning Magic- Toy Story Land, Happily Ever After Fireworks Dessert Party, Memory Maker, Dining Plan & CLEAR (which is essentially airport security Fast Pass)

If you like long trip reports with pictures, you’re in the right place!

ARRIVAL DAY:
We flew Southwest from Houston, TX to Orlando, FL on a 7 AM flight. I signed my family up for CLEAR, which you sign up for before your trip. It allows you to skip some of the security line (you still do scans/shoes off, etc) but it did cut our wait time in line down quite a bit. Do a quick google search for a free 3 month trial. It was FREE for our trip and worked great. I recommend. We landed and found our way to the Magical Express and the bus was already waiting for us. The bus left 5 minutes after we boarded (yay!) and our resort was the first stop (wow!) It was 11 AM and we were WAY ahead of schedule. That will be a common theme for our trip. We looked around AKL, saw some zebras, picked up the stroller we rented from Orlando Strollers at bell services, then headed to Disney Springs for our 2:45 T-Rex Café reservation. It was only noon. We were hungry. So, I bumped our reservation to a few days ahead, then cancelled it (to avoid the $10 per person fee) and used our Landry’s card to get in right away. We waited about 5 minutes for our table since we had the Landry’s card. MAN it was hot & sweaty. Service wasn’t great and the food was just okay. But the kids loved the dinosaurs! As we rode the bus back to AKL, we got a text that our room was ready. I had requested room 3226 via the TP Room Fax Request. Our given room was 5122. Not even close, but maybe it would be a great surprise! We arrived to room 5122: right next to the lobby elevator and the balcony was a solid wall because it “overlooked” the front entrance of the resort. It also had bunk beds (I requested 2 queens). I hate to complain, but thought the bunk beds might be an “upgrade” that other people may want, so I headed to the front desk to request a room with 2 queen beds, hoping I wouldn’t sound like a squeaky wheel. We ended up with room 4255 which overlooked the Kudu trail savannah (we booked a standard view room and this is a standard view room, but it caught enough savannah to see a some animals!) It was also one of the refurbished rooms with nice flooring and a great stand-up glass shower. We were happy! This room was 100 times better than our original room. Our Garden Grocer Order arrived and that process was easy and efficient. We swam at the pool for an hour or so (not as impressed with the pool as I had thought I would be…) and then headed to bed pretty early. Pictures of our room and view below.

[jflafond_869328]

If you like long trip reports with pictures, you’re in the right place!

LOL bring it on !!!

[Laura_hastings]

DAY 2: EPCOT
Since we were on the Disney Dining Plan, we used a snack credit each morning for breakfast. We had a Lyft pick us up at AKL and drop us off at Boardwalk Inn. (Lyft app works great!) We walked to Boardwalk Bakery, got coffee, cinnamon rolls & chocolate croissants with snack credits and ate while we walked to Epcot’s International Gateway entrance (about a 6 minute walk). It was 7:15 and we were in position for 8 AM EMH opening. Around 7:30, they moved us through security, then we waited. Then they moved us into the park and held us until exactly 8:00. We hoofed it to Frozen Ever After and rode with 0 wait. You guys, I teared up!! Not because Frozen was a tear jerker (even though I did LOVE it), but because the past 7 months of planning was coming together and it was WORKING. I felt so much pressure to make this trip run as smoothly as possible… and it was happening. After Frozen, we fast walked to Soarin’ (my husband asked- Are we going to be walking this fast ALL WEEK? To which I happily replied NO! Just from 8-9 AM). Soarin’ was wonderful. We sat on the side rows and it was very distorted, but it didn’t bother me. As soon as the ride ended, my 4 year old exclaimed loud enough for the whole theatre to hear, “THAT. WAS. AWESOOOME!!” We then met Joy/Sadness and Baymax with a very short wait. We were way ahead of schedule (it was 9:15 now) so we rode Living With the Land even though it wasn’t until later in my TP. Then our Fast Passes started: Spaceship Earth (stand by line was 45 min, I felt so bad for them!), Test Track (so fun!) and Nemo (meh). We grabbed some water and ice cream to try to keep from melting. Good LORD it was HOT. I realized we hadn’t taken any pictures, so we circled the silver ball 3 or 4 times looking for a photo pass person. This bothered me… I expected them to be more readily available. We did, however, finally find 1 guy who took some good ones. I was happy we had a family photo!

We grabbed snacks at the Flower & Garden outdoor kitchens. 3 snacks = 1 QS credit. (Citrus Blossom was great! Lobster tail, Crispy Chicken & orange sponge cake. I was also VERY HAPPY to get the only souvenir I had hoped for: Orange Bird Sipper!)

My boys had nachos at the QS restaurant in Mexico, we rode the little Grand Fiesta ride and then walked to China to search for the person making those amazing flower Cotton Candy things but were told they were only available at certain times. Bummer. We were officially hot & sweaty, so we headed to the American Pavilion for their outdoor kitchen (brisket, bbq sandwich and Chocolate cake were all delicious) then got the heck out of Epcot because we were melting. It was only about 2:30 and we were done. We grabbed some pastries in France so we would have breakfast in our room the next morning. We walked back to Boardwalk Inn and got a Lyft back to AKL. Dinner was at the quick service restaurant at our resort (The Mara) which we were not fans of. I had planned on eating there a few times during our stay, but we really were disappointed in it. Off to bed early!

[Laura_hastings]

DAY 3: MAGIC KINGDOM
It was a EMH day at MK so we grabbed a 6:45 bus and were at the gates at 7:15 AM. We really didn’t have a reason to be SO early. We were not planning on racing to 7DMT and had a pretty laid back schedule as far as MK schedules go. I guess we are just early risers! My husband is really competitive and kept getting frustrated with all of the people trying to position themselves in front of us for rope drop. I kept reminding him that I had a plan and we were NOT in a rush, but he was in it to win it. Win what? I dont know. Once they let us in the entrance, people were hopping curbs with strollers and acting like fools to get to the front. I was grateful we were headed to Buzz Lightyear and Dumbo and not a major attraction! From 8-8:45 we rode low pressure rides that the kids enjoyed. At 8:45 we headed out of Fantasyland to join the rope drop crowd for Pirates of the Caribbean. When we were let loose into Adventureland, we arrived to fine POtC was down. Bummer. We rode Aladdin’s carpet ride and hoped it would come back up soon. I felt a little panicked staring at my (color coded and laminated) mini tour plans I had printed out. Was I sweating because it was 100 degrees? Or because this was my first schedule obstacle to overcome?? Luckily, it came back up as we got off the Magic Carpets and we rode it with a 3 min wait. I remember this ride being a lot more fun when I rode it at Disneyland. Perhaps that one is a little different? Anyway, we then used our Fast Passes for Splash Mountain (my kids are officially spoiled now without any concept of actual waiting in line) My husband told me not to post this picture. So, here it is! (He gets nervous on rides but was a great sport all week!)

Then we headed to lunch at Be Our Guest. We saw people being turned away because they didn’t have reservations and I felt so bad for them. They looked so defeated. I wanted to shout “Join Touring Plans for next time!” Thank goodness we Pre-ordered. We were sat almost immediately and waited for our pre-ordered food to arrive. My 4 year old was starting to lose it. He had been doing so well! He was riding all the rides! But it was hot and we were hungry and he just wanted to lay on the floor. We all enjoyed our food and felt rejuvenated from the AC and caffeine! We walked over to our next Fast Pass: Haunted Mansion, after stopping in the Rapunzel bathrooms, to find the Fast Pass line was out of the ride and wrapped around Liberty Square. Apparently the ride had gone down and now everyone was in line to use their Fast Pass. We reluctantly got in line as I scoured my TP trying to come up with a new game plan, but the line was moving fast. We probably waited 15 minutes, I was impressed. I’ll tell you who was NOT impressed: the cute blonde girl at the front of the stand-by line who was yelling at a CM after trying to sneak into the Fast Pass line, “I’VE BEEN IN LINE FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF!! IM JUST REALLY FRUSTRATED!!” We quietly slipped past her and into the Stretching Room… Both of my boys hated this ride. The photo pass photos are of my husband comforting DS7 and me alone in my carriage because my 4 year old is laying in my lap. Next FP: Big Thunder Mountain RR (so great, we all loved it!) and we were done for the afternoon. We grabbed a photo pass photographer in front of the castle and she told us to hug. Smush!

We thought it would be a good idea to grab ice cream at The Plaza Ice Cream Parlor on the way out. It was fun until my DS4 licked the ice cream right off of his cone and had an epic melt down on Main Street. Sorry everyone around us!

Time for a nap… It was 1:00 and we headed back to AKL via bus for a rest. Feeling cool & rested, we headed back to MK around 5:00 and used some 4th, 5th, 6th FPs on random rides. Jungle Cruise with a FP was a 25 minute wait. So not worth it. Meeting Mickey & Minnie in their party outfits with a 15 minute wait. So great!!

At 7:15 we were at Tomorrowland Terrace to check in for our HEA dessert party. Check in was at 7:45 but I had read to be there early. We were allowed in by 7:25 and were allowed to begin eating right away! At 7:45 the line to check in was about 20 families deep so we were glad we had gotten there early. The cheeseburger eggrolls and spinach dip were great for my husband and me. My kids loved all of the little desserts. The s’mores station & ice cream sundae station were fun and well received by my boys.

Around 8:00 we headed over to the Garden Viewing area. It was very relaxing knowing we didn’t have to fight for a space out in the hub. We tried out a few different places… the back railing as suggested on the forum, then we moved up to the front. Then we settled on a spot next to a tree with a small railing around it. It was sort of centrally located in the garden.

We were happy with our spot until all of the other people started arriving. A huge family reunion sat in front of us (mostly adults) and my husband and I regretted our seating decision. If everyone would have stayed seated, it would have been fine. But everyone in the front of the “party” stood up which meant everyone had to stand up. Once the show started, my boys couldn’t see very well so I sent them up to the front since they are shorter and wouldn’t be in the way. I walked to the back railing in the middle of the show and confirmed that would have been a better spot to be in. Lessons learned! If you are going, don’t get tempted by the closer-up spots… stick to the back railing! All in all, we really enjoyed the show. It was beautiful, but I don’t think we would do the party again. Being first timers, I’m glad my boys didn’t have to deal with the crowded hub, but next time we will just find a spot ourselves and skip the party. After the fireworks, we decided to ride a couple of rides to allow the crowds to clear. Late night tea cup ride was fun and a great memory! Once we got to the buses, the crowds had died down and we were in line for the next bus, but it took forever to get to us! All 3 of my guys fell asleep on the bus back to AKL.

[jflafond_869328]

Awesome trip report and awesome pics !!! I have to say that family picture in front of the castle is just perfect !!!

[amieintx]

getting frustrated with all of the people trying to position themselves in front of us for rope drop.

These people are even worse than the families that stop in the middle of a walkway.

I wanted to shout “Join Touring Plans for next time!”

But you didn’t, right?

Great report.

[DumboRunner]

Thanks for all of this fun report!

[sbbradshaw]

Keep’em coming- so much fun to read and see the pics of your beautiful family!

[lolabear_la]

Loving the report so far!! Especially hearing how all the planning paid off, I know the feeling!

As for PotC…

I remember this ride being a lot more fun when I rode it at Disneyland. Perhaps that one is a little different?

Yes, Disneyland’s has more scenes & another drop and is longer. I haven’t ever done the 2 close enough to each other to for certain compare, but I remember feeling the EXACT same the first time I rode it at WDW.

[Laura_hastings]

Day 4: Animal Kingdom
Today was our day to “sleep in.” We arrived at the park at 10 AM and had a FP for Kilimanjaro Safaris. What an amazing ride. We saw a Lion and his lioness, giraffes, zebras, rhinos, crocodiles, flamingos, elephants… it was wonderful! We had some time until our FOP fast pass so we took the Gorilla Fallls Exploration Trail. We regretted it immediately and just wanted a way to get off the trail but were told the fastest way was to just finish the trail. If you have a zoo at home, you can skip this. Unless you have kids that just love to watch the Gorillas. We felt like all we did was add extra walking into our trip. Ha! It was finally time for PANDORA!! It was beautiful and crowded. We used Rider Switch with our Fast Passes and that was fantastic. DS7 and I had FOP fast passes. My husband got his band scanned with a Rider Switch. DH and DS4 used their Navi Fast Pass while DS7 and I rode FOP with our FP’s. Wow. What an incredible ride. As soon as we were done, DS7 and DH rode it again in the FP line while DS4 and I found Mickey Ice Cream bars. Now that everyone was fully impressed with riding a Banshee, we headed to lunch at Tusker House. This was wonderful! It’s true what they say: you do still have to wait even with a reservation, but they have a bar in their waiting area (would have been perfect if there was A/C). Once inside, we met Mickey, Donald, Goofy & Daisy and the boys’ autograph book was filling up! They were very excited.

After lunch it was back out into the heat and we had Kali River Rapid Fast passes thank goodness. We changed shoes into flip flops/water shoes so our socks wouldn’t be soaked for the rest of the day. It was great to cool off but none of us got super soaked. I took advantage of the boys’ ice cream break and rode Expedition Everest in the single rider line. I loved this ride so much!! I planned to try and get a FP for DS7 and I for later, but never did. I grabbed a Fast Pass for Dinosaur so we headed over to Dino Land. While walking the queue of Dinosaur, I looked at my phone and it was 4:59. I decided to try for the 5:01 FOP FP drop! My 4 year old almost fell down some stairs because I was so busy on my phone trying to grab it (C’mon dad, you have 1 job!) but I GOT IT!! I had 2 FP’s for FOP at 6:30 with a planned Riders Switch. I felt so cool. I hadn’t planned on riding Dinosaur from advice on this forum. I worried it would be too bumpy, dark and scary for my 4 year old. But, I’m so glad we did! All 4 of us laughed so hard and loved it. Our faces on the photo pass photo cracked us up.

We loved looking at the ride photos after we got off each ride. It was a really neat thing to have the pictures immediately on our phone. I do wish there would have been more photo pass photographers readily available throughout some of the parks, however. After Primeval Whirl, it was time for another ice cream break and the boys enjoyed spraying passers by with their cool, new Pandora bubble machine wands. People would dance through and pop the bubbles. It was fun!

We headed over to FOP for my son’s 3rd and 4th ride (lucky!) While my DH was riding with him, I grabbed a FP for Its Tough to be a Bug for DS4 and me. Bad idea. Once the big spiders fell from the ceiling he LOST IT. I searched for a CM who escorted us out through the back. Sorry everyone else in the theatre! Once out of the theatre, DS4 made me promise I would never take him to “the scary show” again. Dinner was at Flame Tree BBQ (it was fine. I’m starting to realize I don’t like QS restaurants) and then we headed home to AKL. It was a long day and we had an early morning tomorrow!

[AlyQ]

You guys, I teared up!! Not because Frozen was a tear jerker (even though I did LOVE it), but because the past 7 months of planning was coming together and it was WORKING. I felt so much pressure to make this trip run as smoothly as possible… and it was happening.

Had a similar reaction in HS when I realized how smoothly everything was going. Felt so much pressure to get the trip right (and keep it fun and chill for my husband so he’d agree to return soon).

After Frozen, we fast walked to Soarin’ (my husband asked- Are we going to be walking this fast ALL WEEK? To which I happily replied NO! Just from 8-9 AM).

Ha! I rarely walk faster than my husband but when I do, I’m at WDW. The one not chill thing I did was lose it a bit on my husband as we fast walked down Main Street for our PPO ADR. He hadn’t ordered his food ahead of time (we had two overlapping reservations). So I brought up the app and basically told him to keep it moving but order his food before we got there. All the time in the world to slow walk this afternoon. We need to be in and out of BOG to beat the RD crowds to 7DMT.

[Laura_hastings]

I forgot to mention for my Animal Kingdom day… we grabbed a FP to the Lion King Show, which is unnecessary but we were walking towards the show and there was a FP available, so I figured we might get a better seat. REGRET!! They ask you to show up early and keep you standing outside in the heat until right before the show starts. Everyone in the Stand by line was already in the theatre when we were escorted in. I’m not sure if this is the norm, but I would recommend NOT getting a FP to the Lion King show.

[disney1974]

Is that a bottle of tanqueray?

[Laura_hastings]

Day 5: Magic Kingdom with EMM- Fantasyland

I set my alarm for 5 PM instead of 5 AM. GOOD MORNING!! Luckily I naturally awoke at 6 AM and calmly woke everyone up and calmly announced we had 30 minutes to get dressed and get downstairs. We made it! We arrived at Magic Kingdom at 7:15 for Early Morning Magic (the paid, ticketed event) in Fantasyland. Since this was our second day at MK and we were constantly ahead of our TP, we had ridden most of the rides in Fantasyland already. That left us with Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh and 7DMT to ride over and over during this event. They let us in right at 7:45 and we headed straight to 7DMT. We rode it with 0 wait! We LOVED IT. It’s so fun and smooth. I was more worried about how my DS4 was handling it, so I needed to ride it again to really enjoy it. We headed to Winnie the Pooh… it wasn’t open. Bummer. So we headed to Peter Pan and rode without a wait. (I do not understand the typical wait for this ride… is it 100% nostalgia?) We headed back to ride 7DMT again and noticed WtP was up and running so we rode that once. We were excited to ride 7DMT again but DS4 wasn’t. He cried, but we gently forced him (eek!) and am glad we got that last ride in. I promise he was happy, see picture below of us on the second ride.

I can’t believe I’m about to say this… we were done with EMM at 8:20. We had already ridden IASW, Little Mermaid, Teacups earlier in the trip and we were meeting the Princesses at dinner tonight, so we headed to breakfast at 8:30. It hurt my heart. And my wallet. But, everyone’s happiness and ease of riding 7DMT was the point of EMM, so mission accomplished I suppose. We quickly ate (standard breakfast food- eggs, bacon, pancakes and a buffet with yogurt, fruit & oatmeal) and decided to join the rope drop crowd for Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain RR. It wasn’t in the TP, but we were ahead of schedule. We rode both with 5 minute waits, then jumped back into our TP with a Fast Pass/Rider Switch on Space Mountain. I rode The People Mover with DS4 while my husband rode Space Mountain with DS7 and I LOVE people mover! So simple. So fun. So breezy. We knew Buzz Lightyear had a character meet at 11:15 so we got in line (second in line!) at 11 and the boys were in AWE! Truth be told, I wasn’t looking forward to the character meets during my planning. I’m a Thrill-rides-girl! But some of my favorite memories are seeing my boys meeting those characters. Character meals & planning to be at the front of each character meet line REALLY helped.

We rode Buzz’s Space ranger Spin and Tomorrowland Speedway with Fast Passes, then mobile ordered lunch at Pecos Bills. You can probably guess I wasn’t impressed with the food. Stale chips for the nachos. But we were hungry and it was food and we had a seat in the AC! We headed back to AKL for a nap around 1:00. We had reservations at Cinderella’s Royal Table for dinner at 5:45, so after resting we headed back to MK. What a treat this was! My boys loved meeting the Princesses. They were all so sweet to them, gave big hugs, asked them to be in their Royal Guard and took great photos.

I was so grateful we booked this dinner! The food was very good too. Apparently I’m a TS girl. After dinner, we walked over toward the front of the castle where we could overlook the hub. Everyone had started finding their spots for the fireworks, so there were tons of people looking up at the Castle where I was standing. Not gonna lie, I kind of felt like Cinderlla. I have a great video of the view, but this lame selfie will have to do for my Cinderella moment.

The CM said we could stay up there as long as we’d like (even during the fireworks!?! No.) So we took advantage of this spot and the breezy evening and soaked it in. We had ridden everything it seemed, so we headed to Enchanted Tales with Belle even though I had no intention of going there during my planning. It was so cute! DS4 was chosen as The Beast (which he declined. Doh!) and DS7 played Chip and was adorable. What a fun ending to the night! It was a magical day.

[Laura_hastings]

These people are even worse than the families that stop in the middle of a walkway.

My husband almost had a heart attack every day with the jerks who stopped in the middle of the walk way. Ahhh!!

[Laura_hastings]

Is that a bottle of tanqueray?

Haha! THe green thing in the background of my hotel room shot? If so, I wish. It’s a Dinosaur Souvenier cup from T-rex Cafe.

[disney1974]

Killing it! And it looks blazing hot in the picture in front of Spaceship Earth!

[disney1974]

Bwahhhhhhhh!!! That’s great. I really squinted to try to figure it out. You could fill it with Tanqueray now that you’re home…

[longwalk]

Loving the report and the photos!

[Laura_hastings]

Day 6: Hollywood Studios with EMM Toy Story Land
I set my alarm correctly this morning and we woke up at 5:00. Yikes. We took the bus to Hollywood Studios and arrived by 6:45 for EMM. It was an early sunrise at HS!

We got our wristbands and they took us back to eat breakfast. We grabbed a pastry and some caffeine and decided to eat the big stuff later. We got into a good position by 7:10 to head to TSL. They let us loose at 7:30. I had read that the lines for Woody and Jessie were long, so our plan was to get in line for Woody first thing, no matter how tempting Slink Dog Dash looked. It worked. We were 4th in line for Woody. We were getting anxious as we watched the clock tick to 7:35 and Woody wasn’t out yet. But we held strong. I’m glad we did! We met Woody and Bo Peep and were done by 7:40ish. We watched the line get longer and longer throughout EMM.

We headed over to SDD for our first ride. This was DS4 #1 ride that he was looking forward to. Every park we went to he asked if it was the park with SDD. We marched through the queue with no wait… and the ride went down. We waited about 10 minutes. Just watching the clock tick. $4 lost for every minute standing in line. Not moving. Do we leave and go ride A$$?? Do we stay put and waste time? Ahhh!! The decisions! We decided to stay put and found out some guy dropped his sunglasses and that’s what caused the ride to close for 10 precious minutes during EMM. We loved SDD!! DS4 said he loved it! So I said OKAY! Let’s go again!! DS4: I am NOT riding it again. Well, okay then. We headed over to ride A$$ with no wait. It was fun. Then we rode TSM with a 5 minute wait. Super fun! We sat still for about 5 minutes after the ride, unable to exit. I started to sweat again. I must get off this ride and get my money’s worth! (oh, the irony, considering I stopped EMM early at Fantasyland). We finally got off and gently forced my DS4 to ride SDD again. I loved it even more! We decided to do TSM one more time and I got the cutest video of all 3 of my boys running through the queue with 0 people in line. It was so fun!

EMM TSL count: SDD x 2, TSM x2, ASS x 1, Met Woody & Bo Peep… so we headed back to eat our big breakfast while the 9 AM rope drop crowd was taking over TSL. The line for SDD immediately stretched out of Toy Story Land and we were glad to be headed in the opposite direction. The breakfast was great, loved the food! I noticed everyone around me picking and choosing what to order. I was prepared and had read the tips on the forum. I stepped up and ordered 1 of each thing and headed back to our table with my large tray of food. Delicious! As we were eating, I realized I had completely forgotten to sign up for Jedi Training. Oh no! DS7 and I walk/ran to sign ups and snagged a 3:00 spot. That was different than my TP so I had to stare at my laminated print out TP for a while to adjust. My brain was mush. Next up was our FP for TOT. It would turn out the TOT was down for 90% of the day. We did end up riding it, but much later in the day. I pretty much threw my TP out the window but had so much info in my head from this Forum that we hit everything we wanted to, just in a different order. We absolutely loved the Frozen Sing Along. It’s so funny and fun! We had a FP for SDD at 12:35, but DS4 didn’t want to ride it a 3rd time, so I sent DH and DS7 to the FP line just as it shut down again. More sunglasses?? Who knows. 45 minutes later (and 2 mobile order beers for me from Woody’s lunchbox later) and they were finally off of SDD for their 3rd and last ride of the day. By now, DH had figured out the cameras.

I had a solo FP for RnR while the guys went to Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy. There was a 5 min wait at the racing academy and it was nice & cool, they said. It’s a great option for parents who want to ride the big rides and split up. TOT, RnR and Racing Academy are all next to each other. It was time for Jedi training! The Jedi Training made my heart soar. DS7 was so happy and so adorable up on stage, defeating Kylo Ren.

DS7 had saved his money for the whole trip for this ONE particular Buzz Lightyear light up toy. We searched every cart and every store and were continuously told they only came out right before the Fireworks show. Well, we were leaving at 4:00 for a Hoop Dee Doo Revue reservation. I had one CM who really tried to find him one but no luck. We left HS empty handed and took a bus to Wilderness Lodge. Here we rested and changed shirts so we didn’t feel quite so sweaty. We took a (HOT!) boat to Ft Wilderness for HDDR. It was a long trek to get there and then they made us wait quite a while before letting us in the AC building. The reservation says to get there 30 minutes before the actual reservation. Don’t listen. Just show up 15 minutes before the show. We were miserably hot. The show was cheesy but fine and the food was plentiful and alright. I would not do this again. I know a lot of people love it. But it’s way too far to travel for what it is, in my opinion. We decided we were going to grab a Minnie Van and head back to HS just to get my son that special toy he really wanted. He had been so great about it and he deserved it. We tried booking 2 Minnie Vans and they were 20 minutes away. So we cancelled and took an internal bus to the front of Ft Wilderness where we waited 25 minutes for a bus to Hollywood Studios. We were pretty miserable and sad at this point. Stupid HDDR!! We got to HS at 9:05 (posted closing time was 9:00) but since Fireworks were at 9:30, they let us in!! We got the Buzz toy and all was right in the world!

The next day was departure day. We had lunch at Disney Springs, played Mini Golf, and then headed to the airport via Magical Express.

All in all it was a wonderful trip. I wished it was cooler or just less than 97 degrees. I wished people didn’t stop in the middle of the walkways causing us to almost crash into them with our stroller. I wish my 4 year old didn’t lose it quite as much as he did. Other than that, it was as close to as perfect of a trip that you can have a WDW. I was a happy & proud member of the TP community!