The backup plan is the plan, trip report (10/30/21-11/6/21)

Apologies this write up took forever. Thanks in advanced to all the liner’s advice and help planning and pivoting during the trip! Let me know any questions.
This was a makeup trip that we planned since our previous trip was cancelled due to the pandemic. We went bigger because of that and stayed onsite instead of off. Bought G+ in advance concerned about IT issues on site. Me, Wife, DD6, DS3. Planned on 2 days at MK for DS, and 2 days at AK for DD. Trip took some unexpected turns and had to pivot quite a bit (it turns out there is no limit on the times you can ride Dumbo).

Itinerary ( Cancelled Items )

Day Date Resort Activity Special Act. ADRs/Meals
Sat 10/30 BLT Arrival Quicksilver Transport Capt. Cooks
Sun 10/31 BLT MK Dessert Party & Boo Bash Brunch @ Chef Micks
Mon 11/1 BLT Epcot EMH Space 220
Tues 11/2 BLT MK CYM-MK Dinner @ CRT
Weds 11/3 AKL-JH AK - Lunch @ Sanaa
Thurs 11/4 AKL-JH HS Skyliner Lunch @ Beaches & Cream
Fri 11/5 AKL-JH AK CYM-AK Lunch @ Tusker House
Sat 11/6 AKL-JH Depart - -

Saturday- Arrival

Quicksilver Transportation was great to get us to the resort. I ordered some food ahead at Capt. Cooks. Room was already ready so we checked in. BLT has great views and where you could see MK and Space mountain from (if you don’t have a park view, the elevator lobbies and walkway to contemporary are great). Monorail to the Poly to get our food and honorary kid’s first dole whips and were surprised with a dance party at the Poly we could join. Then we timed our trip back to catch the fireworks on the monorail loop as we passed MK. So far so good!

Sunday- Magic Kingdom

Got up to do early hours, Peter Pan G+, we rode about 8 rides by 1030am in Fantasyland. Didn’t get a chance to use another G+, so I began Stacking reservations (I’ll explain why this didn’t work). This was also the first point I realized there was going to be an issue with G+ if DS3 didn’t or couldn’t ride something, then I couldn’t book him a LL on the ride we wanted to go on, if there wasn’t rider swap, I then also had to not book myself or wife on the same ride because we wouldn’t be able to badge through to reset the counter. I tried here to book Wife and DS3 on Dumbo and Me and DD6 on Barnstormer. (This sort of works, but requires the group to divide and conquer or waste a lot of time, but I’ll get to the better method later.) We also lucked out to get to meet Tiana and Rapunzel as this meet had just reopened.

Headed to Chef Mick’s then pool and rest to get ready for boo bash. FYI, you can’t apply the Mickey G+ Photopass filter where he’s creepily hugging you to an actual Mickey, but I applaud anyone else who tries.

By now I realized that managing G+ reservations on the app is more than a real chore and keeps you from being able to just enjoy being on vacation, stacking them is a pain to cancel and rebook if the windows aren’t far enough later in the day and I don’t recommend this method for most people, especially if you are balancing what I’m going to call Asynchronous parties (Divide and conquer).

We all got dressed up in our costumes and headed back to MK for part 2 of the day and Boo Bash. We did a couple more Rides (Haunted Mansion, Dumbo Again, 7DMT ILL$ to try Rider Swap) then headed to the Dessert Party. The Dessert Party was awesome (read expensive) and so much less stressful than Jockeying for a position for fireworks. Drinks and Food adjacent to the fireworks was totally worth it. One negative here, you couldn’t get your boo bash bracelet before the party or during the party, And the individuals (including kids) had to physically be present to get the boo bash bracelets, it would have been nice for them to ask if we were going to it on the way into the party and had them ready. Enchantment was much better in person than online, but still was no HEA.


At this point we realized that DS3 was not willing to do anything that went inside or was fast. Focus on the lighthearted rides was the new strategy with Divide and conquer as needed. We tried people mover(too scary), tea cups, and then rode dumbo about 5x (they just let us stay on for boo bash), Mermaid (only DD6 and Me), and checked out the characters who were out (met Gaston, Maleficent, Evil Queen, Cruella, Chip and Dale, and the Pooh gang, Saw Maleficent’s Dragon Float but no Fire. We Did 3 Candy pick ups which basically filled the bag, Ironically the pickup back in the corner in the circus tent was the longest line of all and the one in the Tiki tiki tiki tiki room had zero line. Dd6 was feeling brave and she did BTM with me and thought it was too intense but fun. By now it was around 11 and everyone was completely tapped out so we headed back to the hotel. Overall boo bash was absolutely not worth the money (or the 12 hours on phone hold to get the tickets) but it was fun and we didn’t know what else we could do unique on Halloween night.

Monday- Epcot

I planned Epcot after Boo bash since it would be a later start and accessible via the monorail. We ate in the room and headed over for rope drop and did Frozen and got a pass for Ratatouille. We were all so tired at this point, I needed a CM to tell me that Ratatouille was not where I was (in Italy) and should try France for getting on the ride. After this, we realized there was not enough time before lunch to use the G+ for Test Track, so we headed to space 220. This was probably the best meal of the entire trip. Service was excellent, everyone was super kind to the kids, food was cooked great. Kids enjoyed watching the space windows for the space dog and got excited every time they saw anything different. We made a long lunch out of it and by then I retconned to get a Soaring G+ since I could no longer get another test track one (it expired). DD6 and Me road soaring while DS3 and Wife went to Nemo and friends. We all met at Finding nemo and rode that with the next G+ pass. At this point we really only had one more must do, Find Mary Poppins.

Success! Walked over to England and we seriously lucked out as she was right outside. The character meets are unannounced and sporadic. Most CMs don’t know when they are there and say its basically just luck. Decided to make one lap around the world and got to see Mulan and Belle also.

Decided to head back to BLT, make it a pool and pizza night and get to bed on time for tomorrow. We realized doing CRT was going to be infeasible the next day after being so tired and going to EMH at Epcot wasn’t going to happen, so we hung out at BLT, Watched the fireworks in pajamas from the BLT/CR Walkway and got one of the best memories.

Tuesday- MK Day 2

Waking at 6:55 to pick G+ this day is when I realized liners know too much. I picked Peter Pan as the first LL again for everyone. We walked over a bit later than Sunday with no issue, enjoyed seeing how the park had transformed into Christmas and decided to Divide and Conquer some more but start in Tomorrowland instead. DD6 and I did Astro orbiter, Speedway and then met up with Wife and DS3 went, guess where, to ride Dumbo another 3 or maybe 4 times, they let them stay on as well. We then did Tea cups and Dumbo again and Pooh again. DD6 “Magic band swapped” Peter Pan twice, DD6 and me did 7DMT again also.

Next was our Capture your moment, very much amazing. First thing the photographer did was take us back stage and up to the castle. Got photos with parades, and he Paused foot traffic through the castle for a photo. Absolutely floored by the photos. Can not recommend booking this service enough and if you can book 2 back to back sessions you get even better photos.


Kept the pace up and grabbed food at Harbour House (very good), DD6 was feeling brave to try Splash and made it through again saying it was too intense but fun afterwards. Did Swiss Family and Carpets then DS3 got to meet Earidescent Mickey twice and even got him to dance the Hot dog dance with him. Called it quits for tomorrow for pool, packing, and drinks time.

Wednesday- AK and Resort move.
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Having to have everything packed to move resorts was a damper but we were excited to head somewhere new. Caught the bus to AK and did Navi River, then Triceratops Spin, Boneyard, and then headed to Sanaa. Sanaa was “OK”, the view of the animals isn’t actually that great and while the food is good for Disney standards, I’ve had much better breads and dips. The Underdog here was the Grub Dessert for kids.

Room was still not ready so we headed back to AK. Did KS, both animal trails and got to see some “ famous” animals from the Animal Kingdom Show. Went over to Rafiki and did the petting zoo and drawing setting. Had to take DS3 outside to move around and had a good chat with the CMs there about the pandemic and their experiences. Ended up eating at Satuuli and the food was great. Rode FOP and then checked out Dino area christmas decorations and headed back to the hotel and checked in and unloaded everything for the next day.

Thursday- Hollywood Studios

Our kids are not into star wars or toy story so we only planned 1 day at HS. We attempted to rope drop MNMRR and found out that a lot of rides were completely down this day. Bailed on line and did Swirling saucers (great ride actually) and TSM, ate some tarts and headed over to Disney Junior. Character stations are set up for photos but no expected schedule yet for when they will be available. The Show is not as good at the old one with the animatronics but kids didn’t care. (I’m really curious if the lifeless bodies of the animatronics are still under the stage)

Here is where the Lines app was worth it’s weight in gold. The app suggested that MNMRR was to be back up at 10:20 so we walked back over and loitered at the entrance. I asked a CM if they knew when it would open and was told “We are going to go see”. They opened the ropes and we ended up in the 2nd group onto the ride. Did Frozen Singalong (not sure why it wasn’t the Christmas version yet). Skyliner to beach club and back for fun, and headed back to AKL-JH for pool and dinner, and Smores.

Need to comment here about how silly it is they charge $6 for smores at a resort which already is $100’s per night.

Friday- AK day 2

Forecast was looking bad for this day, lots and lots of rain was incoming. Polled Liners about MK or AK and settled to stick to our plans on AK based on the Safari’s being extra interesting in the rain. Had to cancel CYM (they can’t in the rain like this) Used G+ once on Navi river, so that was nearly a complete waste for the day. After getting soaked and eating a huge lunch at Tusker House we decided to head back to the hotel to dry out and enjoy the kids club activities the best we could and pack up for the trip home in the morning.


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Saturday- Disney Springs and leaving

Found out our flight was cancelled and rebooked for much later Saturday. Decided to pivot once again and do Disney Springs which was actually pretty good. Aside from the long bus ride and the long waits for the bus back. Took DME for the last time ever back to the airport and We bid Disney goodbye for now.

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I love your Halloween costumes! Sounds like a pretty good trip. And you’ll always be able to tell your son the story about how all he wanted to do was ride Dumbo a million times. That will be a good memory. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Tell me about splitting the Genie+ reservations … could you do that easily in the app? We will have a large group of 8 and I know that will be an issue for us.

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Looks like an amazing trip!

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You can select who is going on each reservation, its gets very hard to manage though if you split it up and you can’t easily cancel if you arent on the reservations IE, If Wife and DS3 had Dumbo LL, and Me and DD6 had Tea cups, and I’m logged in on my phone, I can’t actually See the Dumbo LL reservation. (Maybe they fixed this by now but it was a problem for me.)

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A. MAZE. ING.

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Your Boo Bash costumes are amazing!! I didn’t even know there was a Christmas version of Frozen sing along.

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There is a holiday finale where Olaf shows up and they sing the end of the holiday special on D+.

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Fun!

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Yes mind blown! So practically perfect in every way!

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