My DS3 had a problem with the dark rides too. Someone on this forum had suggested we give him a small flashlight for the ride and that made a difference for him. He wasn’t excited to be on the dark rides, but he wasn’t clinging to me and hiding like before the flashlight.
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Sentimental favorites of mine as well. On my first visit to WDW in '75, other than SM (which had just opened 2 months prior), CBJ was one of the most popular attractions in the MK with lines in excess of 2 hours. Of course the Tiki Room is even more of a nostalgia trip; with only a few minor changes, it’s essentially the same show that opened in DL in 1963. I try to fit both in on every trip.
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The plan for Thursday was to sleep in a little later since we had a longer day at MK and have a nice relaxing day at AK. Since we had planned on spending less time at AK it was definitely the park that I had researched the least. DD is not a huge zoo fan, so that is why the plan was not to spend too much time there.
We all got a good night’s sleep had our breakfast and were on the bus by 9:30. We got through the gate at AK a little before 10 and were on our way. We walked over the bridge and stopped to sign DD up for Wilderness Explorers. She was pretty apathetic about Agent P, showed no interest in SotMK, but she liked Wilderness Explorers. She clearly likes talking to people, and so this is right up her alley. After earning her first badge we walked over to use our FPP for the Mickey and Minnie M&G. The posted wait time was like 10 minutes, but since we had the FPP we went ahead and used it (not sure if it saved us any time or not). When we came out one of the CM said that a squirrel came over and nabbed some peanut butter crackers out of the stroller and ran off into the woods with it. The squirrel was back and trying to get into other people’s strollers as well and she was trying her best to fend him off.
We stopped to get badge number 2 behind the Tree of Life (which is IMPRESSIVE in person). Then we planned to head over to DinoLand, but noticed that the line to meet Pocahontas was short, so we made a quick stop there. DD again told the camel joke, which Pocahontas thought was pretty funny. She had quite a bit of personality and was a fun M&G.
I had plans to do a few things in DinoLand, but the only thing we managed to do was the Boneyard. DD had a blast running and climbing on everything. I had thought about trying to pull her out to go do some other activities, but she was having so much fun that I figured she would rather just stay and play there. We had reservations at noon for Rainforest Café, so we did eventually have to leave.
We walked back to the entrance and had lunch at the Rainforest Café. This was not in my pre-trip plan. My original plan was to go to Whispering Canyon Café Friday for dinner and then get up to go to Ohana Saturday morning as kind of a last fun thing on vacation. Since I didn’t know what time we would get done at WCC, and we would have to get up real early to pack up and get to Ohana Saturday morning I bailed on Ohana and picked up Rainforest Café instead. Rainforest Café was fun, the food was pretty good and we enjoyed the Chocolate Volcano dessert. I know it is a chain restaurant and not very “Disney”, but we liked it.
We had a FPP for Kilimanjaro Safari at 1:20, so we hiked all the way back there for that. The FPP didn’t help us skip any of the wait (thanks low crowds), but DW and I enjoyed the ride nonetheless. DD was not impressed. A few minutes into the ride she laid down on the bench and sort of checked out for the rest of the ride. I kept trying to point things out to her, but I am not sure she understood why it was neat. She didn’t complain, she just didn’t care…oh well.
Next on our plan was Festival of the Lion King. We had enough time to get another Wilderness Explorer badge and get into the show with plenty of time to spare. The show was AWESOME! I thought it might be a little loud for DD, but she loved it. The music was familiar and great, the dancing and the rest of the show was unbelievable. A+ for the Lion King from our family.
From there we headed over to Finding Nemo the Musical. I wish we had more time so we could have seen more on the walk, but we made it nonetheless. Again, another great show, it was touching and fun, much like the movie.
We wanted to keep it a light day, so we headed back to the resort. We had plenty of time for dinner and hanging out in the cozy cone pool. We met a family from Argentina and had fun talking with them. DD knows a little Spanish from preschool, so she had fun showing off for them and asking them how to say all sorts of things. It was neat being out there with all the neon lit up, it was a really fun way to end a really fun day.
I wish we could have had more time in our schedule for AK. It seems like a really neat park with lots of different things to do. Even for a family not that into zoos, we really enjoyed it. I don’t regret the way we did it, but if/when we go back we will try to make some more time for AK.
Friday was our last day in the parks, tune in next time to hear the importance of being flexible and about my absolute favorite snack of the trip!
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I’ve loved your trip report, thanks for sharing.
I agree; I think FotLK is the best live show in WDW (except maybe La Nouba, but that’s Cirque du Soliel, and really in a class all by itself).
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I had made pretty solid Touring Plans for Monday thru Thursday, but I had purposely left Friday a little open to try be able to adjust our plans to what DD enjoyed. We had FPP for Buzz for 9:20, 7DMT at 10:30 and Splash Mountain at 1:30. I had originally slotted in doing some of the classics and more rides, but with our experience so far through the week I decided to make pretty major adjustments. I dumped all of the FPPs except 7DMT (so DW and I could take turns riding) and picked up Enchanted Tales with Belle at 4:10 and Tomorrowland Speedway at 1:45. I stayed up Thursday night rearranging the TP in the app, which proved more difficult than on the desktop, but I had a plan and was ready to go.
I had also learned that pushing to get to the park for RD wasn’t going to be worth it for us. I am glad that we did it for the first 3 days, but I think taking a little more relaxed start to the day made things a little more pleasant for DW and DD who are not big morning people.
We still made it to MK a little before 10:00. We got to the castle right when they were starting the welcome for Princess Elena. DD has a poster and loves Princess Elena, it was on our plan for the afternoon, but this was my flexible day, so we went with it. The show was quick, not really much to it, but it was fine, and DD got to see Elena, so box checked. After that we made our way back to meet Merida. DD hasn’t seen Brave, but was excited to meet her. After the obligatory camel joke Merida had a couple other good ones to give her back. We were the last ones in before she took a break, so that was a pretty nice win.
After Merida it was time for our FPP for 7DMT. We took turns, I rode it first (I got to ride in the front seat) while DD and DW rode the carrousel, when DW took a turn and DD and I hung around a little and she played tag with what I am assuming was one of the Royal Majesty Makers. If not it was just some random person dressed up. Either way it killed enough time for DW to ride. We both liked 7DMT enough, it is definitely mild, but I totally understand why it is popular. It is perfect for where it is and a nice coaster to start young ones on. DD was not going to ride it, but seemed happy that we did.
We swung around the castle and made it to the hub for the Move it! Shake it! Dance party! DD loved this! She was a little apprehensive at first to go out into the street to dance when they said to, but after a couple of people did she was totally into it. She danced with King Louie for a while, and then made her way over to Judy Hops. Judy stayed on the float which was a little disappointing, but still cool. I got some video of her dancing to Try Everything with Judy Hops, so that was pretty special.
We headed back to Fantasyland and the posted wait time for meeting the princesses was low (like 10 minutes) so I offered for DD to meet the princesses again. She of course took me up on it, I was a little surprised she chose Cinderella over Rapunzel, but she was happy. The posted wait time was WAY off, I actually timed this one and it was 27 minutes. I was a little bummed, but no biggie, the wait was all inside, so it wasn’t too bad. We were hungry for lunch at Pinocchio Village Haus. Both DW and I got flat bread pizzas, she got chocolate cake and I got breadsticks. I really liked the breadsticks, the pizza was so-so. It is convenient right in the middle of Fantasyland, and kind of cool to be able to see into Small World (which just re-opened that day). I wouldn’t go out of your way to eat there, but if you need a bite to eat it is worth it.
Next time I will finish up MK Day 2 and then wrap up the exciting conclusion to our journey. Thanks for sticking with me through this, I know it is a lot to read, but it has been fun writing it.
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Loved that it might have been some random stranger who was dressed up. Looking forward to the conclusion.
With full bellies and ready for an afternoon of fun we walked down to Dumbo for one of what I figured would be our few rides of the day. I was glad to see that the play area was open when we arrived so we grabbed a buzzer and let DD run off to play. Disney gets an A plus from our family on this one too. What a great idea to have you wait in a cool place with space for kids to climb and run around. We were basically told when we checked in that since the line was so low to play as long as we want and then just come up and tell them when we were ready to ride. After about 15-20 minutes of fun I looked at my watch and the times guide and decided it was time to move along. I asked DD if she wanted to ride Dumbo or do something else and she chose to do something else.
We waved bye to Dumbo and got DD changed into a swim suit so she could play at the Casey Jr. splash station. This looked like a lot of fun, but DD was not a huge fan. She is used to splash pads where things are a little calmer and more predictable. She was a little intimidated by the whole thing, so we changed her back into regular clothes and kept moving.
We headed over to the hub for Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire. This was a big hit with DD, the music was fun and the show was pretty entertaining. For those without small children I would put this into the skipable category, but it is a fun show.
While waiting for the show to start I had hands down the best use of a snack credit the whole trip. I left DW and DD and walked over to the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor and got an ice cream cookie sandwich. I wish I took a picture of it; it was two huge chocolate chip cookies with your choice of two scoops of ice cream in the middle. I got mint chocolate chip ice cream in the middle. I honestly can’t describe how awesome this was, it was a hot day and man did it hit the spot. The regular price was over $5, but even not on the dining plan…totally worth it. If you are near the Ice Cream Parlor do yourself a favor and run to get this treat!
Now back to our regularly scheduled programing…we headed over to Tomorrowland and used our FPP for the Speedway, then headed back to the hub to watch the Festival of Fantasy parade. DD is still singing the song, and we have been home for almost a month. This time we took up a spot right on the road where the floats came by. We had a better view of the people walking with the floats and DD lit up when some of the characters waved right at her.
Following the parade we headed back to Tomorrowland to catch the Laugh Floor, which was a big hit again. Then back over to Fantasyland to try Enchanted Tales with Belle again. DD made friends with another girl in line from Australia, so that was fun for all of us. This time she was a dancing plate, I was really hoping she would get a bigger part, but oh well, no big deal.
We had reservations at Whispering Canyon Café at 6:30 and I wanted to be early to try to get to bed earlier, so after Belle we stopped on the way out for one last M&G. I gave DD the option of Tinkerbell or Mickey at Town Square (since the waits were about the same and there were no FPP for either), she chose Tinkerbell. Tink was the only one who acted like she had heard the camel joke before, she misheard DD to start but after she heard what she said she said something about how she should have laughed slowly (like the sloth in Zootopia).
With one last look back at the castle we said goodbye to the Magic Kingdom unsure of when we may return. We had taken buses and the monorail already, but had not tried out the boats yet. So we walked down to the dock and waited for the boat to Wilderness Lodge. The weather was starting to look a little unfriendly, but it held out for the boat ride and we were all set.
We didn’t look around too much, but the Wilderness Lodge looked impressive. I know it is under construction, but it really looks cool. Seems like it would be a lot of fun to explore that resort, but we were all a little tired and pretty much ready to eat and head back to the room. I wish we had been a little livelier, but we were tuckered out. We chose not really to partake in much of the fun at WCC. All in all, the restaurant was fine, the food was ok, the atmosphere was ok, but it was far from our favorite of the trip. I think I had higher expectations for the food, but I was a little disappointed.
We took the bus back through MK to AoA and got into bed for one last sleep at AoA.
I’ll wrap up (probably next week) with our trip to DS, the exciting flight home, and some general take aways from the trip
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I’ve never had one from Plaza, but I’ve had them at Sleepy Hollow and have heard that they’re the same. I agree - AWESOME snack.
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your report! Thank you so much for sharing with us!
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Great trip report! Thanks for sharing!
Love this report! Thank you for sharing!
Great trip report! Was the ice cream sandwich a Dining Plan snack credit? Sounds delish!!
Yes it was, one big awesome snack credit…way better than a banana or something 
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Thanks for sharing so much about your trip. It’s been really helpful to read as we plan our trip. What do you think about the Touring Plans Lines app and the Disney app? Were either of them helpful?
The My Disney Experience App was very very helpful. I used it a lot to check out wait times and our Photo Pass pictures as they came available. I did use the Lines App some, but not as much as I had anticipated. It was interesting to see the difference in wait times, but for the most part they weren’t too far off.
I printed out my touring plans and used paper maps. On Friday I did try to use the Lines app to track my “progress” on my TP, but I really found that I liked the printed paper better…but that is just me.
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Great Trip Report! Makes me super excited for our trip in a month.
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Thank you for taking the time to do your travel log. Loved it.
Loved your trip report and all the great photos! Thank you for sharing your trip with us!
It’s so interesting to hear different people’s strategies and preferences! I used the Lines app most, but I needed my hands free to cart around the spreadsheets I made of all the Quick Service menus. 
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