6th trip for myself, DH, DD11, and DS8 (technically, it’s his 5th trip, but I found out I was pregnant with him right before we left for our first trip together!)
Wed, 8/8 - arrival, HS
Landed in Orlando around 4 pm. Took Magical Express, directly to BCV. Requested 473 - got 273. Dropped off bags, called down to have Garden Grocer order delivered to room, then hit HS for FP+ for AS2, RnR, and Fantasmic!
Started with RnR. I hate rollercoasters. My son agreed to try all the rollercoasters for the first time on this trip, so I sucked it up and agreed to do them too. DH and DD LOVE rollercoasters. So, might as well get the worst one over with. DS was not a fan.
Ate at Woody’s Lunchbox. Ordering was a mess (which I had read on several reviews.) Food was good for quick service. They had a lot of standing fans placed around the seating area to help keep people cool, which weren’t on theme, but welcomed.
AS2 was awesome. We stood in line for TSMM (45 min posted wait). Play! app was really fun, wait was probably 30 min.
We then headed to F! We have never seen it, so was everyone was really excited. A storm looked to be blowing in, and they weren’t letting people in. Just as I said, “Maybe we should go back to the hotel”, it started to pour. We slapped on rain jackets and went to the exit. We evetually found signs where BC buses would be (couldn’t boat back in the rain). After watching All-Star buses go past us for 25 min, we took a Lyft back to the hotel.
Thur, 8/9 - MK
FP+ for all the mountains - Space, Big Thunder, and Splash. Also had anytime FP+ due to Fantasmic being rained out. Exclusions were for Pandora, FEA, and Toy Story Land - no exclusions in MK, so we were very excited.
Arrived around 10 am because we had HEA desert party too. DS loved BTMR. Used anytime FP on 7DMT. My husband and son’s anytime fastpasses worked great. Mine and my daughter’s did not. The cast member told us we did not have fastpasses - I repeated that we had anytime ones that did not have MK exclusions for all 4 of us, so I wasn’t sure why it wasn’t working for just myself and DD. The CM was pretty rude, and said she would let us through “this time”.
As we headed towards the ride, my husband and I were chatting about it and another CM overheard and said that the original CM was questioning us because anytime fastpasses always excluded 7DMT. I offered to show her the email on my phone. (It’s also worth noting that the anytimes disappeared for all four of us, so I’m not sure if the CM at the entrance did something.)
Regardless, enjoyed the ride. Headed to 5 pm dinner at BOG, new fixed price menu. Thought it was really nice - the children kept saying what a fancy meal it was! I thought it was a good value for the cost (we were not on the dining plan.)
We road a few more rides and then headed to the dessert party. There was a long line to check in, so we rode people mover and arrived around 8 pm. We were escorted to a table, and then were shown the buffet. Everyone was still stuffed from dinner, but we had a few things, enjoyed chairs and air conditioning, grabbed some bottles of water and headed out to the garden around 8:45 pm.
Lots of space in the garden - we headed to the back left. The kids lay around and looked at their phones. We sat until the show and relaxed.
I’ve never seen HEA or any MK fireworks - this is the first year my kids were old enough to stay up that late (they are great sleepers.) Oh my gosh. It was so wonderful and moving. I got teary a few times. The dessert party was totally worth it for the relaxed experience.
I really, really wanted the lantern photos, so after waiting about 10 min for the crowds to thin out, we fast walked to Rapunzel’s bathrooms. The line was long but we probably only waited 15 min. I love them -
Waited forever for a bus, got back around midnight.
Fri, 8/10 - EPCOT
FP+ for TT, MS, SE. We rope dropped FEA, then headed to Soarin, then TT. We did Mission Space Green first as DS had never been on it. It is super lame now, you were all right. 
Used FP+ for Orange.
Lunch at GG - easily again one of my favorite restaurants. It’s so entertaining with the moving and the characters and the food is wonderful. Afterwards, did one of DH’s favorite rides - Living on the Land. There was a Behind the Seeds tour starting soon after, so he signed up for that and I took the kids to the Seas. DH LOVED the tour and talked about it for the next few hours.
Hit UK for some Agent P sleuthing, and tried to meet Jasmine - she was already full for that session, so headed to Germany for dinner at Biergarten. It was very nice. DH and DD went to Germany for a school trip in June and our waitress was from the region they visited, so that was a bonus treat.
Went back to the hotel and swam for a bit.
Sat, 8/11- HS
FP+ for SDD, TOT, Frozen SAL. At this point, my DS who had been such a trooper decided he did not want to do TOT, so I switched our FP+ for Star Tours.
We averaged 10 mi a day walking the first two days, so everyone was pretty beat. EMH is 7 - 8 am and we were at BCV, so going early made the most sense but sounded horrible. Also, the kids wanted to do Jedi Training (would be my daughter’s last year since we’ll likely to CA for vacation next year.) We agreed to leave the hotel at 7:15 am and arrive at the tail end of EMH.
Arrived inside the park right around 7:55am, signed up for JTA (no line, got the time we asked for - 2:10 pm - and were offered 9:40 am). DD and DH rode TOT and RnR 3 times each. DS and I rode AS2, TSMM, Star Tours twice (DD joined us for second ride), then headed to Frozen sing a long around 10ish.
We were all starving so we had an early lunch at Backlot Express. While inside, it began to pour. We slapped ponchos on and headed to Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Discovered everyone’s rain gear was awful other than DS’ Hunter \ Target jacket (I was shamed into bringing my cute raincoat instead of my IKEA poncho by family. HUGE mistake.) Did not appreciate the raining portion of the show.
At this point our SDD FP+ window opened, but it was still down. Went into Launch Bay and met all the characters. I had forced family to wear matching Star Wars shirts. DD was not thrilled that hers had the only bad guy (Darth) and even less so when Chewbecca “commented” on it, and then placed a backpack over her shirt for the pictures -
Hit SDD. WAY more intense than BTMRR and 7DMT in my opinion with bigger drops.
Crossed back through the park for JTA -
Called it an early day and went back to the hotel. Ate dinner in our room (one huge advantage of staying in a 1 room villa is the full kitchen so we ordered groceries and “made” frozen lasagna, burgers, and pizza for a few dinners and most breakfasts in the room). Swam in the evening.
Sun, 8/12- AK
FP+ for EE (DH/DD), Tough to be a Bug (DS/me - DS was really over trying rollercoasters at this point), KRR, FOP
We had Wild Africa Trek booked for 10:15, so decided to head to buses shortly before 9 am. After waiting for 30 min for no bus, I was beginning to panic. A bus finally arrived, and we landed at the park at 9:40 or so. Sent DH ahead to check us in. We arrived with plenty of time, but I didn’t enjoy the panicking!
WAT was AMAZING. I have wanted to do this FOREVER, and was so excited that DS was finally old enough. The age range in our group was 8 (DS) - 83 and our group was 11 people (our 4, family of 5 including 83 year old grandma, and a couple celebrating their anniversary!)
I always assumed that the animals were contained in certain small areas by invisible fences or I don’t know what, so I was surprised to see them cross the roads and move about freely.
The “snack” was delicious and very filling. I could have stayed in the boma forever watching animals. I would love to do a more in-depth behind the scenes tour of AK. Or stay at AK lodge next time.
I got soaked on KRR as usual. I thought to bring a towel this time vs. buying another $20 AK towel at the park since I already own three.
FOP was AMAZING. By far, it was everyone’s favorite ride. Feeling the animals “breathe” was just - amazing. It was incredible.
It started to rain while we were on FOP so we headed back to the hotel, ate dinner in our room, and everyone crashed early.
Mon, 8/13 - BB
We try to plan a non-park day every trip and my DD suggested a water park, so that was on the agenda this time.
We started with a 7:45 am reservation for Bon Voyage Breakfast. Flynn Ryder was one of the best character interactions we’ve ever had. My son randomly asked him what was in his bag - be sure to do that.
Smolder.
I’m normally not this kind of person, but I Disney bounded as Ariel and got my husband to be Eric. Flynn was like, “Oh. You’re dressed like Fish Girl and Boat Boy.”
Next up was the Pirate’s Adventure Cruise. The kids did this last time and LOVED it. So we sent them off on their own adventure for two hours -
After the kids returned, we Lyfted to BB. Since the only way to get there was to bus to AK and get on another bus from there - which after the previous day’s experience, no way was I going to wait 30 min to start to get to AK.
(My one major complaint about the entire trip was the buses from BC/YC. Horrible waits unless you are doing to MK. I mean really - I shouldn’t have to Lyft ANYWHERE for what we paid to stay at this hotel.)
I have never been to a water park at Disney and it was wonderful! We have been to Schlitterbahn and Great Wolf Lodge a lot (live in hot as heck Texas) and of course, we are so spoiled now with what a Disney quality water park would be like! We climbed 800 million stairs of course.
Atter, went back to hotel, showered, and Lyfted to Disney Springs for a little shopping and 8:30 T-Rex reservation after trying to get one for 6 visits. It was fine - we don’t need to go back.
Tue, 8/14 - MK
FP+ - SM (DD/DH), HM (me, DS), 7DMT, Jungle Cruise
Arrived around 10 am and hit BTMRR, DS new favorite ride. Had noon QS lunch at BOG. We had placed our order the night before - cannot recommend this highly enough. Sat in the rose room.
We wore matching Incredibles shirts, which was very popular with various CM comments. Kids got stickers like 7 times from CM for being so “incredible”.
After riding around, headed back to hotel to rest as it rained, eat dinner, and then ventured back out around 7:30 to Epcot for evening magic hours. Did Agent P in France, then Mission Space Green and Orange with kids while DH rode one of his favorite rides, “sitting down and enjoying a beer,” since he gets motion sickness.
During EMH, hit Soarin with no line, then rushed to Mexico to do the ride since we had not done it yet this trip and the kids love it, then rushed back to TT for our last ride of the trip. Limped back to the hotel a little after 11 pm.
Wed, 8/15 - Cape May Breakfast, leaving
Since our flight wasn’t until 2 pm and our Tragical Express ride wasn’t until 11 am, made reservations and ate in BC for the first time ever.
All in all, a wonderful trip. Many thanks to all of you on this forum - I learn so much here and enjoy your virtual company very much.