Wait, we have Annual Passes! We Can Go Back to Disney! A Mother-Daughter Trip Report (Updated 8/12)

[disneyfan314]

Hello everyone! Welcome to my trip report!!! I am very happy to have you here! Let me start off by introducing myself. I'm Kesha, a wife and mom of 2 girls (15 and 10), and a lover of all things Disney. I have been a long time stalker on the DisBoards and while I don't post very often, I am so thankful to all of you that do because it has helped make planning for my WDW trips much easier. I made a promise to myself that I would write a trip report after my late May/early June trip to just maybe help someone else who is planning a WDW vacation. So without further ado......here we go!!!!!!


(Here I am with the main mouse himself!)

So before I jump into this trip, let me give you some background info on how this trip came to be. Last June, we visited for the first time as DVC members. DH and I purchased 150 points at SSR in late 2015 (Merry Christmas for me!!!) The contract was loaded so we were able to get a 1 BR at BWV (with points to spare) and it was a wonderful trip. Here's a picture of us from that trip with Chewie!

Now, while I was deep in planning for that June trip, my youngest daughter and I started talking about making a return trip in September to celebrate her 10th birthday. Remember above where I mentioned I had points to spare.....it worked out that I could get us 4 nights at OKW. So, after doing some math, I realized it was cheaper to get her and I AP's (especially she was still 9 and got the child rate) instead of park hopper tickets. We had a wonderful trip in September even though we
rode out landfall of Hurricane Hermine and had to wear our ponchos quite a bit.
(A rainy, but fun day, at Disney!)

Now, it was my original plan to rent my points out this year because I promised my oldest daughter and husband that we could take a non-Disney vacation this summer (our last 4 summer vacations have been Disney in some form- 2016 WDW, 2015 Disney Cruise/Vero Beach, 2014 DL, 2013 WDW) and that they were in charge of planning it. Well, that didn't seem to happen and when my younger daughter and I were talking about the lack of planning on my oldest daughter and husband's part, I jokingly mentioned, "Wait, we could go back to Disney! Our AP's don't expire until June 4th." I was fairly confident I could fit in a trip between when my youngest DD got out of school for the summer and our AP's expired. My hubby kinda just cringed and said, "Not Disney again!!!" (he's kinda over Pixie Dust and just tolerates my obsession) but said, "You and Anna should go and use your passes." Well, that's all I needed to hear!!! I was back in Disney planning mode! I got on the DVC site and booked us a studio at Boulder Ridge Villas (or Wilderness Lodge Villas) for May 30-June 4. Keep in mind that this was prior to the announcement of the opening dates of Pandora, so we got really excited when it was announced it would open just days before we arrived!

One last thing to add before I get the actual trip report started. I decided to try a different strategy in planning the airfare part of this trip. In the past, I usually book our flights pretty soon after I get dates nailed down and our room booked. At some point during my planning phase, I read an article that said the best (cheapest) time to book airline tickets is somewhere between 3 weeks and 3.5 months before the scheduled date. So I decided to wait and test this theory. Around the 3.5 month mark I started looking at prices and on March 20, I got an email with special fares from Spirit. $24 one-way tickets on select dates in March, April, May, and June. So, I clicked the link in the email and PIXIE DUST!!! Our departure day, May 30 was one of the select dates! $24 for tickets to Orlando!!!! I booked them immediately! Unfortunately, our return day, June 4 was not a selected day, but June 6 was. Hmmmm, could we extend our trip a couple of days? I got online to see if anything was available through DVC (I still had some points I could use) and NOTHING was available for June 4-6. After sleeping on it, deep thoughts, questions to complete strangers on Disney DVC facebook pages, and discussion with my husband, I took a big leap of Disney faith and went ahead and waitlisted the final 2 nights at SSR and booked the return flight on Mar 21 (the last day of the sale) for June 6. I figured the worse thing that would happen was that I would have to find an offsite hotel for the last 2 nights if my waitlist didn't come through. In the meantime, while I was waiting for my waitlist to hopefully come through, I did what any sane DVC member would do, I started checking the DVC availablity tool multiple times a day! And pixie dust sprinkled on me again!!!! While checking on March 22 during my lunch break, there was availablity in a lake view studio at BLT. I immediately booked it Our trip was finally locked down! I had hotel rooms and flights booked. After making my Magical Express reservation, all I had left to do was wait for my Fastpass window to open!

Up next: We're going to Disney World today!!!!

 

[disneyfan314]

Table of Contents

We're Going to Disney World Today!!!!

Will we Make our Fastpass in Time!?!

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Joining in! Sounds like a blast! I love our DVC and am soooo grateful for the trips we've been able to take because of it.

 

[disneyfan314]

We're Going to Disney World Today!!!!!

After counting down the days, it's finally here! The day we fly to the Happiest Place on Earth!!! We were flying out of Houston International Airport at 1:07pm and we live about 2 hours from the airport so we were up and on the road before 10am. Here's a picture of my traveling buddy ready to go at 8am!


We arrived at the airport, parked, checked our one bag, and made it through security without any problems. And here's Anna enjoying a cheeseburger for lunch in the airport at 11:58.



We soon boarded the plane and of course had to take a selfie!!


We were ready to go! We had a uneventful flight and landed in Orlando at 4:25p. We were letting Magical Express take our one bag we checked so we headed straight to the Magical Express line! We used our Magibands for the first time to check in and were sent to the line for Wilderness Lodge. We were the only people in the line for that hotel and waited about 10-15 minutes for our bus to arrive and load. Here were are on the bus waiting to head to our resort.


We are very happy to be in Orlando!!!! But at this point, I'm starting to get a little nervous because I had scheduled a Fastpass in AK for NRJ for 6:15-7:15. Now, I knew leading into our trip this was a gamble and there was a chance we wouldn't make it, but I was keeping the faith at this point!

The ME bus stopped at the Poly first and let off one family so it was a quick stop. We were on our way to Wilderness Lodge! We arrived at our hotel and since I had already received a text with our room number when I turned my phone back on after landing, we walked straight on through the lobby (we did slow down fast enough to oooh and ahhh at how beautiful that lobby is) and went to our room. We were in room 1514, a studio on the first floor. In fact it was the second room on the left when you came from the BRV lobby. At first I was a little worried that with the room so close to the lobby and elevators, and our porch doors that was close to the walkway from the buses that we would hear lots of noise of the people coming and going, but that wasn't the case at all. It was quiet and peaceful for our 5 nights there. Sadly, I did not take any pictures of our room, but it was clean and we had no problems at any point during our stay. We did find this little gift in our room that I posted about on facebook.

We were there while construction was still going on which closed off he quiet pool and lots of the walkways along the lake/beach. And the only quick service place to eat was the new restaurant behind the big pool which was a little bit of a walk for us. While we never heard any noise from the construction, it did make getting around a little more difficult as you had to go all the way around through the WL lobby to get anywhere. I would like to stay here again now that that construction is complete.

We dropped off our carry-on bags, changed our shoes, and headed out to catch a bus to AK!!!!!

Next up: Will we make our Fastpass in time???

 

[disneyfan314]

Joining in! Sounds like a blast! I love our DVC and am soooo grateful for the trips we've been able to take because of it.

Welcome aboard!!! Glad to have you! I can't believe I've taken 3 DW trips in just one year. That would have never happened before we bought DVC. My only regret is that we didn't do it sooner. And naturally, I'm already starting to think about what to do with my 2018 points.

 

[dnllmz]

Following!

 

[abarriger]

Following! I hope you make your Fp!

 

[heaven2dc]

What a fun impromptu trip this is going to be! Now I'm anxious to know if you made your fastpass time!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Following along! I love how excited your daughter looks in all the photos!

 

[disneyfan314]

Following!

Welcome!!!!!

Following! I hope you make your Fp!

You will find out soon!!!

What a fun impromptu trip this is going to be! Now I'm anxious to know if you made your fastpass time!

Did we make it??? You will soon see!!!

Following along! I love how excited your daughter looks in all the photos!

Welcome!!! She is my Disney loving daughter and since this is our 2nd mommy-daughter Disney trip together, she knew how much fun she was going to have in the coming week!

 

[disneyfan314]

Will We Make our Fastpass in Time???

So we dropped our carry-on bags, changed our shoes and headed to catch a bus to AK!!!

Now, this was our first time staying at WL, but I did do my homework prior to our trip and knew that the bus stop was a short walk from the Boulder Ridge Villas building and boy was it. I was pleasantly surprised with how close and easy it was to get to the bus stop from our building. Now, I can't remember exactly what time it was at this point, but I do remember thinking we were just a long bus wait away from missing our fastpass time. But, the Disney gods were shining down on us and we walked right on to an AK bus. In fact that entire week, buses to AK were plentiful. I assume it was because Pandora had just opened a few days prior and they knew lots of people would be heading there. After an uneventful bus ride, we arrived at AK!!!!

This picture was taken at 6:53p, which means we had 22 minutes to make it to Na'vi River Journey before our Fastpass window closed. And since Pandora is close to the front of the park I was fairly confident we would make it in time! We quickly made our way to the entrance of Pandora. We did slow down a little once we entered to take in the details which are incredible. I had been watching reports from the AP and DVC passholder previews and had seen pictures and videos, but it really is breathtaking to see it in person. You just can't capture the attention the imagineers paid into designing this land on film.

We slowly made our way over to the entrance of Na'vi River Journey. Here is a picture at the entrance:

I don't know why the numbers didn't come out great in this picture, but we made it to the entrance at 6:59 and the standby queue wait was 110 minutes. I don't remember being in the fastpass line long and it wasn't as detailed as the standby line, so we were soon on the boat. I didn't take any pictures because I wanted to experience the attraction without distractions (honestly, I rarely take pictures on attractions) but I will give you my thoughts. I was excited when we were assigned to the front seat of the boat and thought it would be only me and my daughter on that row because the boat isn't very wide, but they put 2 grown men in the row with us, which made for a very close ride, if you know what I mean! I guess they were trying to fill boats to capacity to help get people through the line faster. I thought the ride itself was well done, a great mix of screens and actual props. The leaves with the creatures jumping on them are amazing. I had a hard time following the story line even though I had read what it was leading into our trip. There is nothing that clearly defines or explains it throughout the entire ride. The highlight of the ride is the AA Shaman at the end. It looks very realistic and it's amazing how it moves to the music. I do think that they could have added a little more to the end after the Shaman. After you turn the corner you are at the unload dock. There needs to be more transition time to slowly come back out of that immersive world. Overall, I give it 3 out of 5 stars. It is extremely detailed and well done, but needs a clear story and to be longer. I most certainly would not wait 110 minutes to experience it. In fact, I don't think I would wait more than 20 minutes (which is why this is the only time we rode this our entire week).

We strolled through Pandora after getting off the ride to check it out a bit more and to see where we were going to have to go for our fastpass in the morning for FoP. Here's a few pictures I took that evening.

We headed out the back entrance of Pandora (which comes out by FotLK) in search of some dinner. I always try to eat somewhere different every time so we stopped at the Harambe Market as we strolled through Africa. Anna had a corndog which was standard theme park food and I ordered the chicken skewers. They were served with Green Papaya Slaw and Black-Eyed Pea Salad. (Sorry, no pictures. I'm pretty bad about remembering to take pictures of food). It was ok. The chicken was a bit dry and the slaw and salad were nothing exciting, but it complimented the chicken and I was starving by this point so I would have eaten anything.

After we finished dinner, we had a date to find the Yeti, so off to Everest we went!

As always, an exciting thrilling ride! This is probably one of my favorites in DW.

From there we strolled over to DinoLand in hopes of riding Dinosaur! because the app was showing a 10 min wait. Once we got there, people were coming out of the ride, saying it was down (spoiler alert!!! this becomes a theme of our days at AK) so we decided to get in line for Primeval Whirl which had a 30 min posted wait. Now, I will confess here, I really dislike this ride. I hurt my neck riding it pretty bad on our 2013 trip, plus the older I get, the worse I do with things that spin, so I try to avoid it, but my daughter really likes it, so I did it for her. Fortunately, it was only a 12 min wait and we were off in no time with no injuries or sickness for me, so I call that a success. After getting off PW, we headed over to get a seat for Rivers of Light. I did get confused on where to enter as I saw signs saying fastpass and thought that was the entrance, and it was actually the kiosks to make fastpasses, but we figured it out and got seated. Not long after we sat down, a storm started rolling in and lightening was detected in the area, so the show was canceled. I really wanted to check out the show since I hadn't seen it yet, but we sadly left the theater and started to talk about what to do. We decided that we didn't want to get caught in the rain so we stopped and got some popcorn and headed to the bus stop and call it a night. We knew we had an early morning ahead to ride a banshee!!!


Up next: Rope Drop at AK

 

[KangaFan]

LOL--it's a shame that your daughter is so camera shy

 

[disneyfan314]

Back to back reports....whoohoo!!! In all honesty, I'm gonna try to get this trip report done in the next couple of weeks because I teach at a university and we will be back to school in about 3 weeks and life will get crazy, so fingers crossed that I get it done before I go back. Also, I'm trying to link each update to the last update and to the table of contents but I can't get it to work. I followed the directions in the FAQ thread that explains it, so if anyone has advice, I'm all (mouse) ears. Hahaha!

Now on to the next update-

Rope Drop at AK

Before I get to far into this update, I need to explain some of my pre-trip planning. When I first started planning our park days, I originally planned for Sat 6/3 to be our full AK day. Well, then the opening date for Pandora was announced and I had to do some rearranging because I was worried that the 2nd Saturday that the land would be open would be nuts with locals so I changed our day to a weekday in hopes to have slightly less crowds. I fortunately was able to get a FP for FoP for 10:10-11:10 for 5/31 so I turned that day into our AK day.

Now, we are rope drop people. I love the fact that you can get so much accomplished in just a couple of hours in the morning before the crowds build, so we tend to rope drop each day we plan to go to a park. And this day was no different, AK was scheduled to open at 8am so we woke up, had breakfast in our room (toasted bagels with PB) and headed to the bus stop to start our day. Again, we waited hardly no time before a bus arrived and were on our way back to AK.

Here we are walking to the bus at 6:51am. The 2nd to last set of doors was our room.

We arrived about 7:05 and got through bag check quickly as there was hardly anyone in line for bags. Got in AP line with about 30 or so people ahead of us. They started letting people in at 7:15. We leisurely walked to Pandora with the rest of the crowd and was let all the way into the land. Cast members were holding the crowd right where the path splits to either go to NRJ on the left or FoP to right. We were probably 100-200 people deep where we were waiting. (We were standing right by the big pod plant that makes funny sounds and mists and squirts water randomly). Here's some pictures from us walking in and waiting.


At 7:40 the cast members started to slowly walk the crowds into the lines for rides. This was all very controlled and efficient. We got to the line entrance at 7:52 and it was posted as a 30 min wait. We made our way through the queue which I can honestly say I really enjoyed. There was so much to see and it made it seem like the very LONG queue we were strolling through wasn't that long at all. The line seemed to move slowly almost through the entire line....


Continued in next post......

 

[disneyfan314]

Rope Drop at AK (continued)

We are strolling through the line for FoP


And the line moved along well until we made it to this....


Everyone was stopping in front of this to take pictures. Some were taking pictures of their kids and entire families. I will say, up close, this is really impressive. It is HUGE and it looks so lifelike. It even moves, twitches, like someone who is sleeping.



This is part of the mural on the wall in the final holding room before the standby and FP lines merge. This room was full of people and the line slowed quite a bit here as they were only sending small groups at a time into the next room. We got through this room and into the final holding area before you go into the pre-show area at 8:24. You wait in this area the longest to go into the preshow areas. They count off the exact number of people that can go into each section so you just wait until you are counted off. There are 2 pre-show holding rooms you go into that explain what you will be doing, safety rules, etc. The videos are well done and we realized when we rode again later that morning with our FP that we got 2 slightly different versions of the preshow video. After going through the 2 preshow areas, you are lead to your banshee. I was sitting on my banshee at 8:45. So, from the time the crowd was walked into lines until we got on the ride was 65 minutes. But honestly, it did not feel that long because there was so much to see and take in the entire time.

As for the ride itself, it's AMAZING!!!!!! I can't really describe it well enough to do it justice. The video is so crisp and clear it's like you are really there, the movement of the banshee is lined up with the video perfectly, the smells, the wind blowing in your face, the mist of the ocean, the feeling of the banshee breathing between your legs. They did not leave any detail out with this ride. It was worth every minute of our 65 minute wait. And we got off of it, so excited to do it again, but with our FP as the standby wait posted was already 290 minutes.

Since we had some time before our FoP FP we decided to head over to Africa and take a Safari. The posted standby time was 20 minutes and we were boarded in 21 minutes. I love doing the safari early in the morning because usually there are many animals out and this time didn't disappoint. I met a nice gentleman traveling alone who upon chatting with I realized was a frequent visitor. We were both amazed that the standby line was only 20 minutes at 9:30 because prior to the opening of Pandora the safari drew the rope drop crowd and that line usually got long quick. So, it was pretty apparent that most of the people at the park were waiting in lines in Pandora.

After our safari, we still had some time before our FoP FP and saw that the posted wait for Dinosaur was only 10 minutes so we headed over to Dino Land. When we got to the line, it was backed up outside the entrance which means it was not a 10 minute wait. I overheard a cast member telling someone it was really a 40 minute wait. Well, I knew if we waited 40 minutes we would miss our FP, so we abandoned our idea to ride Dinosaur and headed back to Pandora.

FoP was just as amazing our 2nd time around. After that we decided to head back over to Dinosaur and just use our special FP we were given since RoL was canceled the night before. Well, as we got closer, people were coming out saying it was down (AGAIN!!! remember last night this happened too). I was starting to think just weren't going to ride Dinosaur this trip. We were getting hungry, so we just decided to have lunch at Restaurantosaurus. We both had burgers and fries and enjoyed some time just sitting in the AC.

After lunch it was time for our EE FP.

Then we headed back to Dinosaur since it was posting a 10 min wait time. It actually was more like 25 but we made it on!!!

We finished our time in AK with a cooldown on Kali River Rapids. After getting soaked, we headed back to our room to rest some before heading out to Epcot that evening.

Next up: Can't we just ride Test Track?

 

[disneyfan314]

LOL--it's a shame that your daughter is so camera shy

I know huh?!? She has been posing for cameras since she was born. We always tell her she just needs to be a model!

 

[kittylady1972]

What a fun trip! Your daughter reminds me a lot of mine, just a bit younger, especially with the posing. My very favorite trip this year was a last minute surprise trip I took with my daughter (posted in my PTR/TR link below) back in March so I love reading about yours!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Hi Kesha!!! I'm really enjoying your trip report!! Like you, I have an AP and am going on a planned-in-one-month-trip in 22 days!!! Just me and my mom!!! Cannot wait!!

 

[heaven2dc]

Flight of Passage looks amazing! I love that they have integrated so much to look at while you're waiting in line. 290 minutes wait time is definitely crazy! Glad you got to ride twice with minimal waits (having that FP was a huge plus!).

 

[disneyfan314]

What a fun trip! Your daughter reminds me a lot of mine, just a bit younger, especially with the posing. My very favorite trip this year was a last minute surprise trip I took with my daughter (posted in my PTR/TR link below) back in March so I love reading about yours!

I'm gonna have to read your trip report!

Hi Kesha!!! I'm really enjoying your trip report!! Like you, I have an AP and am going on a planned-in-one-month-trip in 22 days!!! Just me and my mom!!! Cannot wait!!

Welcome!!! Only 22 days! How exciting! Were you able to get all the FP's you wanted? That's always the tricky part.

Flight of Passage looks amazing! I love that they have integrated so much to look at while you're waiting in line. 290 minutes wait time is definitely crazy! Glad you got to ride twice with minimal waits (having that FP was a huge plus!).

It really is amazing! And while I did enjoy looking at everything in line, I'm not sure if I would have felt that way for 290 minutes!!!

 

[disneyfan314]

Can't we Just Ride Test Track? (Day 2: 5/31 continued)

After a fun morning at AK, we headed back to our room and I took a little nap to recharge my batteries. After my nap, we walked around our hotel a bit just to check it out since we hadn't really explored much since our arrival yesterday afternoon. I didn't take any pictures, except for this selfie...

but Wilderness Lodge and Boulder Ridge are both beautiful. Just a side note, when I plan our trips I always know which park we will rope drop in the mornings, but I rarely plan our evening park. We usually just talk about what we are in the mood to do, where we are going in the morning, and what the current wait times are and make a decision. After our discussion we decided that Epcot was the place to go.

We took the bus to Epcot and our first stop was Test Track since this is Anna's favorite ride at Epcot. We still had our special FP we had gotten the night before from the canceled RoL. We scanned our bands and made it through the design room when the announcement came on that there was lightning in the area and they were suspending the ride. We waited a few minutes, but after I pulled up the radar on my phone, it looked like it would be a while before the weather passed so we made the decision to leave. We were happily surprised when we were handed paper FP as we exited that we could use anywhere in the park except for Frozen or Illuminations. Since we were close by, we headed next door to Mission Space which was a walk-on.

After getting off MS, I realized I had lost my Magicband! I knew I had it when we at TT so I assumed I lost it somewhere from TT to MS when I was putting on my poncho. We retraced our steps, but I didn't see it, so I headed to Guest Services. The cast member I talked to was very friendly and checked lost and found to see if anyone had turned it in (it had my AP slider on it and I was more sad about losing that), but it wasn't there so they gave me a new MB and we headed on our way.

We headed to the Land Pavilion because I had snagged a Soarin FP while in line at TT. We took a leisurely cruise on Living With the Land. There is just something about this ride that I just really enjoy so we always ride it multiple times on each trip. Then we had dinner at Sunshine Seasons. I honestly don't remember what I had, but I must mention that Sunshine Seasons is one of Anna's favorite places to eat in all of Disney World. She likes that they have the different stations to choose from and of course the desserts! I do remember we split a chocolate mousse cake and it was delicious!

Now it was time for our FP and we went Soarin' Around the World. This was the second time to see the new version and again I really enjoyed it! My only complaint is since we were on the bottom row, I could see the legs and feet on top of us which kinda takes you out of it a bit, but it is still a great attraction. Oh, also, I got a FP for TT (which was now back running) while waiting in line for Soarin, so once we were done flying, we headed back over to take a drive. We still had a few minutes before our FP window opened, so we used our paper FP we got earlier when it went down for weather.

Now, of course, even the FP line was a bit backed up because I'm sure everyone was coming back to use FP they got while the ride was down. And while we were waiting before we even got to the design room, they announced the ride was down for technical issues. Ugh!!! Are we gonna get to ride this or not!?! Well, after some discussion, Anna and I decided that we would just wait a bit to see if it started back soon. And after about 20 minutes the ride was back up! We finally made it on!!!! Here's the funny car we designed! We cracked ourselves up making this car. We were trying to pick things that were ridiculous!

We came out and went right back in line with the FP I snagged while in the Soarin line.

We got through the 2nd ride without problems

and was back outside the ride at 8:58p. We could hear that Illuminations had started, so we decided to head back to the bus and beat the crowd. We grabbed a Mickey Bar to snack while we walked back to our bus. Here we are waiting for our bus to bring us back "home" for the night.

We showered and got in bed and chatted a little about our plans to visit Magic Kingdom in the morning and in no time we were both fast asleep!

Up next: Is this boat gonna get us to MK in time to beat the rope drop line to Peter Pan?