Thursday, September 30th
Dd and I drove up from the Tampa airport. My timeline was thrown off by an hour due to her plane being delayed. I used it wisely to run to Publix and grab some drinks.
Our room at the Poly was lovely. We were in Tokelau, room 2946. I had requested 3948 so we could see the castle from the room…but this worked as well!
I am not sure if the room had been refurbished or not, but it was definitely not updated w/ the Murphy bed. Dd (5’4" tall) slept on the pull down trundle and found it very comfortable.
Our mandatory photo of dd and I at Cindy’s Well. I posted this w/ an explanation on 9/30 that dh gave me my engagement ring at Cindy’s Well so we always take pictures there every trip. Dd and I texted these shots to dh.
The original plan was to do everything in Tomorrowland so we wouldn’t have to do it on our full MK day. The park was closing at 8pm and we didn’t get into the park and to Tomorrowland until 6:30pm. As we walked into Tomorrowland, there was a sign that it would be closing at 7pm that night. So we pivoted and just did Space Mountain. We were also able to do 7DMT, Haunted Mansion, and Small World (my favorite!!).
After our short amount of time at MK, we took the boat launch back to the Poly and met dd’s friend for dinner at O’Hana. I took zero pictures of our food, but it was delicious! There was far too much of it and we sent the leftovers home w/ dd’s friend.
We had an amazing day at Animal Kingdom. Since everyone else seemed to be at MK or EPCOT, AK was empty and we walked on everything, all day long. It was actually exhausting because we weren’t stopping at all…just walking from ride to ride and then walking all the way through the queues w/o stopping.
We stared by rope dropping ETPE did FOP, Na’vi, the Safari, breakfast EE (2x), Kite Tails, Dinosaur, Feathered Friends show, and lunch at Yak & Yeti. Dd rode EE 2 more times while I did Tough to be a Bug, and then we caught Lion King and did the Safari again
Dd managed to lose her wallet somewhere between the main stores at AK just before leaving the park and our room at the Poly. This added some stress towards the end of the day and messed up our afternoon at DHS the following day, but Disney found it quickly and we were able to pick it up at lost and found.
I got the special anniversary drink at Y&Y and the fancy, plastic, glass (which I brought home), lit up and changed colors! The drink was good too!
I ordered the special that day which was delicious fish. There was some work dealing w/ the bones, but otherwise an excellent meal. Dd got sweet and sour chicken and she really enjoyed it. Our dessert was fried wontons. There was cream cheese inside them and the skewers had pineapple and strawberries. The sauce was amazing and the vanilla ice cream was very good too.
Absolutely delicious! We got the wontons w/ the sauce on the side (dd loved it and agreed that it was too spicy for me!), and then we both got the beef and the AMAZING peach crème brûlée.
The meal was perfect, the service first rate, and the fireworks were lovely.
I am not sure I would go back with the 50th celebration menu, but definitely will return once they are back to an a la carte menu.
Full day at MK. Dd switched her park reservation to go back and check AK and see if her wallet was there at all. She used her time wisely and took a few more spins on EE and I think another Safari?? She then came back to the Poly and hung out on the open green area (turf, not grass) and relaxed for a while before meeting me at 2pm in MK.
I took the boat over and did most of the things dd wasn’t overly interested in. I started w/ Peter Pan, then Small World, Splash Mountain, picked up some pins for dd, Country Bears, Enchanted Tiki Room, People Mover, Carousel of Progress, Hall of Presidents, etc.
My lunch at Skipper’s Canteen was solo. Dd would have really enjoyed it, especially the Kungaloosh dessert (which is wrong because it used to be a drink at the Adventurer’s Club). I LOVED the decor, the food was delicious (I got the “Hardy Har Char” Siu Pork), and the magic lemonade was yummy too (and a bit $$).
Dd and I had a great day and did all the things! So much fun. Our dinner was at Liberty Tree Tavern. There was quite a wait to be seated (over 30 minutes). The meal was fine, but I guess my anticipation of dining there for so many years pumped it up far more than I should have. We both loved the pot roast, the green beans and mashed potatoes were good, but everything else was just okay. Service was fine. I don’t think I would go back until I could order a la carte.
Since we watched the fireworks the night before, we opted to hit the rides while everyone else was busy. We walked onto both POTC and JC. In fact, we were the only people in our boat on Pirates!
Just a great day and I am glad dd and I got to enjoy it together!
A full day. We packed up at the Poly, dropped our stuff off at bell services and were at the turnstyles before they let any of the resort guests into DHS. The first picture shows where we were in line for Slinky Dog Dash…ready to go when they let us through.
We did a great job and rode SDD, MMRR, ToT, RNRC (dd rode twice), Star Tours, and Muppets 3D before 11am.
We then took an Uber to Disney Springs to pick up dd’s wallet (they called us at about 2:30pm the day before to tell us they found it). We wandered a bit trying to find food (I was hot and cranky and didn’t want to stand in a long line in the heat). Ended up w/ crepes (more dessert than lunch) and they were delicious.
Our Uber driver on the way back to DHS got completely lost when they wouldn’t let him go through the regular parking entrance. We ended up over by the Magic Kingdom only to return back to the DHS entrance and have them repeat the directions to him, again. I ended up taking out my GPS and guiding him to where we needed to go. I also had to contest the Uber charges because he actually charged us for all that time driving around property. They refunded most of the cost of the trip within 2-3 minutes of me contesting it.
The rest of our day at DHS was equally as lovely. We did the Frozen Sing A Long for the first time…and I don’t know how we skipped this before because it was wonderful!! We also made sure we caught Beauty and the Beast (dd’s favorite) before heading over to our dinner at Sci Fi Dine in. Yummy burgers, rings, and fries and the shakes were excellent too!
After dinner we headed to Galaxy’s edge and were able to walk onto ROTR, MFSR, then ROTR again before the park closed. We then hung out and waited for our after park close ADR at Oga’s.
If we didn’t have to take 3 hours to go to DHS (would have been shorter except for the Uber tour around property), I would have like to have spent a lot more time walking around GE. I am definitely making time to do that during my next two trips.
We took the Skyliner to Pop. To our delight, our bags were in our room!! That was a welcome surprise!
Our REMY boarding group was fairly easy to do first thing in the morning. I let dd sleep in a bit so we started our full day at EPCOT about a half hour after official park opening, but we had been rope dropping to park close for a few days at this point and need a little bit of extra sleep.
We were able to do all of the rides starting w/ FEA, Mexico, then most of Future World (or whatever they are calling it now). Afterwards we headed around the “world” eating lots of good food. We enjoyed Remy but didn’t think it was worth all the fuss (or the 30+ minute wait w/ a boarding group). Late afternoon found me hitting a wall w/ the heat, and I slowed down a lot. At one point dd and I split up so she could go back to Canada and get the apple pie drink, and I did some shopping and pictures.
Dinner was at La Hacienda de San Angel and was one of unexpected highlights of the trip. I made the reservation so we could watch Harmonious. Not only did we have an amazing view, but the food was really good. Dd and have said so many good things about it since we have been home, dh actually told me that next time he goes to WDW, he would like to eat there.
Packed up our stuff, dropped it at bell services, and headed out to rope drop ETPE at MK. We managed to squeeze in a couple of rides, had breakfast with Cindy, then filled the rest of our time at MK redoing all of our favorites. Our longest wait was Jungle Cruise. It was almost an hour, which was by far the longest we waited for anything the entire trip.
Yes, they were all taken w/ my phone. I have a Pixel 3XL. I may be upgrading to the 6Pro before my trip in January. That has some fancier camera options, including telephoto!
