High School Senior Trip... as a junior in college??? - A Dec 2021 Trip Report

[disney castle days]

Hello Everyone!! We just returned from WDW last night (well technically this morning), so that means it's time for a trip report!!!

This trip was originally planned for July 2020, but the parks opened on what was supposed to be our last day there, so this trip has been postponed multiple times, but we finally made it!

When: December 14-21, 2021
Where: OKW, 2-Bedroom

Okay now let's get into the intros:

Hi, I'm Allison and I will be your guide for this adventure.



I'm 19 years old, and as the title mentions, currently a junior in college. I was a high school senior in 2020 (for those of you that are confused about the math, I am graduating college early), and this trip was originally my high school's senior trip. I am currently studying Exercise Science and will be going to grad school to become a Sports Statistician. I also will hopefully be doing the DCP next year! I believe this is my 11th trip to WDW. My favorite rides are Soarin and Big Thunder Mountain. My favorite characters are Bruni and Stitch. My favorite resort is Bay Lake Tower, although Boulder Ridge is a very close second.



Next up is my mom. I'm not allowed to post her age on the internet, so you can leave that to your imagination. She is a kindergarten teacher, and working with 5-year-olds definitely has an effect on her. She loves all things Disney and has had quite a few Disney-themed classrooms before. Her favorite character is Stitch. Her favorite park is MK. She claims to not have a favorite resort, but I would say it is Wilderness Lodge, mostly because she always wants to stay there. Her favorite ride is Peoplemover and she also really loves IASW.

Lastly, is my friend Gavin, who makes a brief appearance. I don't have a picture of him, but he is one of my friends, that I went to school with since we were 5. He is now a local, after moving post-high school, so we met up on our first day in the parks to hang out since I haven't seen him since schools closed in March 2020. He is a sophomore in college, majoring in historical preservation (not sure what the actual major is called). Like I said we went to school together since kindergarten, and he is about 1 of 5 people I still talk to from high school, so I was super excited to see him.

Welcome to the trip report!

 

[disney castle days]

Table of Contents:
Travel Day Part 1
Travel Day Part 2: Time for MK!
Travel Day Part 3: Olivia's and Facing Fears
Day 2 Part 1: A Job Interview & Epcot
Day 2 Part 2: World Showcase and POFQ
Day 3 Part 1: Cape May and NomNom Cookies
Day 3 Part 2: Christmas Party Time!!
Day 4: A Lazy AK Day
Day 5 & 6: Weekend Vibez
Day 7: Topolino's and a Snow Globe
Day 8: Last Week

 

[snikki]

Better late than never ! Can’t wait to read along for your trip.

 

[footballmouse]

 

[disney castle days]

Travel Day Part 1:
Travel Day started bright and early, and boy do I mean early. We were originally scheduled to fly out at 11 am, well our flight got moved… to 6 am!

My alarm went off that morning at 2:50 am. I had thankfully packed the night before, so I threw on some clothes, brushed my teeth, and we were out the door by 3:30.

We arrived at the airport by 4:15, and there was no traffic! If you live in NJ, you know that no traffic is a miracle in itself. We got to the airport, my dad dropped us off. I believe we were one of the first flights of the day because there was no one there.

We normally fly out of a different terminal, but that one was under construction so it took us a minute to find our bearings and make it to security. Here’s where we ran into a few issues.

I was traveling using my passport for the first time, I had gotten it for a trip to Germany that got canceled due the pandemic, and I couldn’t find my license the night before (we thought I left it at school, it was in my wallet the whole time). Well, it turns out I never signed it! The TSA agent had a field day with that and made me leave the security line to go find a pen, even though I had one in my backpack. I left the line, signed it, waited again (it was a short line thankfully), and made it to security this time.

During security, I got pulled aside for special screening, which always happens. Well for some reason, the special screening was to fingerprint me? I didn’t even know this was an option, but it took only a few minutes, and finally, I was on my way to the gate.

Our plane was already there, and the crew was boarding. We were in row 20-something. I believe we waited maybe 30 minutes before we started boarding.




The flight was pretty smooth, other than the landing. I listened to music the whole flight, and my mom watched the news and slept. I had drank a Body Armor Edge before we left, so I had enough caffeine to keep me awake the whole flight. The total air time was around 1 hour and 45 minutes. After what felt like a year of taxiing, we finally reached the gate at 8:51.

MCO was all decorated and I have never been happier to see a carpet in my life.



We headed to baggage claim, and it only took a few minutes to get our bags. We went over to magical express, where there were about 5 parties in front of us. My mom couldn't find her magicband so I checked us in.

We were expecting a little bit of a wait, but we were pretty shocked when the cast member said it would be between 40 and 50 minutes before our bus came.

Well, that turned out to be a lie, and we got directly on a bus and left maybe 5 minutes later.

At 9:50 we passed under the welcome sign and we were finally home!!!

 

[disney castle days]

Travel Day Part 2: Time for MK!

By 10:10 we were at OKW. We dropped off our luggage since our room was not ready. This is when it first hit how hot the weather was going to be. We went on the same exact dates in 2019 and were wearing pants and sweaters the whole trip. Well, that was not the case. We quickly changed into shorts, and I threw my ears on.




Now it was time to wait for a bus.

I don’t have the exact time it took for most of the buses, but I remember this one did not take that long. Going to the parks, we never waited that long, coming back, however… well you’ll just have to wait and see.

By 10:30 we were past security and into the park!



We both agreed that we thought the tree looked different than it had before. Neither one of us knew why it looked different, just that it did.
Also, I am just realizing how dark the sky looks in this picture, it did not rain this day, so it could have just been my phone?



I would be lying if I said I didn’t cry when I saw the castle. I personally love the new color scheme as well as the decorations. I do miss the dream lights, but during the day, the castle looks so beautiful.

The wait times on the app were all pretty long, so we decided to go straight to our favorite ride, the People Mover.

Well, I don’t know when it suddenly became everyone’s favorite ride, but the listed time was 20 minutes. My mom did not want to wait that long, knowing that during the Christmas Party (or whatever it’s called now), the wait would not be that long.
We did notice that CoP had virtually no wait, and I have never done it before, so we decided to go there. While in the 3rd room, the ride broke down and we listened to the loop 3 or 4 times before it was working again. Overall, I thought it was cute, although I had the song stuck in my head for a few days.

At this point, it was approaching 11, and I was getting hungry since I had only had a drink and a granola bar. My mom had eaten breakfast on the plane so she wasn’t hungry, and we had lunch reservations coming up soon. So we ran into the predicament of whether or not to mobile order an early lunch and just eat lunch twice.


We decided to go with the Chesire Cat Tail, and I think we also got water.

I am a big fan of chocolate pastries. But, I was not impressed by this at all. We have really good pastries at school, so I think that my mind is a little swayed, but this just did not taste that great. I probably would not get this again.

At 11:29 we got the text that our room was ready. I was pretty impressed, I thought we would not have a room until at least 2.

We made the decision to go back to the room to hang out for a little bit before our 1:30 lunch reservation at Olivia’s.

Coming up next: Our room, Olivia's, and more MK!

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more. Better late than never ?

 

[disney castle days]

Welcome back to all that are following along and Happy New Year!!

There are no photos for this update, unfortunately!

Travel Day Part 3: Olivia's and Facing Fears

Our room was 5224, which is located right next to the South Road bus stop. We had no problem finding it, using the map on the app.

I believe I mentioned it before but it was a 2BDR. Our requests were near a bus stop and I think floor level? I am not sure about the second one.

I’ll talk more about the room as we go, but we basically plopped down on the couch and tried not to fall asleep for the hour or so we had left before our reservation.

I think we wound up watching TV, I don’t remember what we watched, but it wasn’t Stacy so I was disappointed. I really wish they didn’t get rid of Must Do Disney.

Around 1 we took a bus to the HH.

We checked in online and were seated pretty quickly. We were sat in the back room, which is my favorite room of Olivia’s. It was super empty, I believe there were maybe 10 parties in the restaurant total? Our waitress was super nice (I can’t remember her name at all).

We both started with the lemonade. I thought that it tasted pretty watery, although my mom thought it was fine so I might just like mine strong.

I was surprisingly not that hungry so I ordered the kid’s chicken tenders with a side of fries and grapes. The chicken tenders were chicken tenders, nothing to write home about, but still good. The same goes for the grapes. But the fries… the fries were so so so so good. They were really thin-cut and they had some seasoning on them that reminded me of Old Bay. I can’t find anything online about what seasoning they use, so if you know please tell me. Ugh, I really want fries now.

My mom got the classic Southernmost Buttermilk Chicken. She said it was great, as always. This is usually my go-to, but I just wasn’t hungry enough.

We had no room left for dessert, so we decided to figure out what we were doing for the rest of the day. My friend, Gavin, was finishing up lunch at the Plaza, so I was planning on heading over to MK to hang out with him. The plan was for me to be back by 6:00, and we would either go to Epcot for dessert or go to DS. You’ll have to see what we wind up doing.

For now, it was about 2:20 and I was getting on a bus to MK.

*I don't have times for most of the upcoming part*

Gavin told me to meet him outside of The Plaza, so that was where I was heading. Going through security, my bag went off and the very nice security guard took the time to explain to me that my glasses case was setting it off and to hold it in front of me next time.

Now a tip I have for anyone that has an anxiety disorder and gets anxious with crowds, walk quickly and act like you know where you are going. I do this a lot when I am by myself (or even with my mom) and people will part like the Red Sea. Maybe I’m just intimidating? I doubt that.

I found Gavin pretty quickly, and for not having seen him in 2 years he didn’t change at all. I let him choose the rides, which was a mistake on my part.

As mentioned a few sentences ago, I have anxiety, I also have a fear of heights, bridges, falling, and generally anything that will make me sick. So what was our first ride? Space Mountain.

I also had never been on a rollercoaster before. Yes, a 19-year-old has never been on a roller coaster despite going to Six Flags and Hershey all the time as a kid. But alas, my fear of disappointing people beats the fear of everything else, so before I knew it I was in line.

The wait was listed at 35 minutes. I have no clue how long it actually took. The queue is pretty cool, and I only was a little nauseous while waiting. Gavin took the first seat, and I was in the second.

The person behind me had his mask off for the ride, so we did not receive our ride photos, which seemed to happen pretty often.

I actually did enjoy it. I would probably never choose to ride it again, but with the right people, I’d do it. It is a lot jerky-er than all the YouTube videos I have seen of it and the track above you seems so freaking close. I would give it a solid 5/10.

Next, we headed towards Liberty square to ride Haunted Mansion. The line was posted at I think 45 minutes? The line is so strange, I hate that it wraps around so far back.

I was pleasantly surprised that they were using the stretching room, I hadn’t seen a video of it in a while so that was nice. We got stuck in the ballroom scene.

I don’t know exactly what time it was at this point, but we decided that we could only fit one more ride in before I needed to go home. It was between Seven Dwarfs and Big Thunder, and I didn’t want to miss the wildest ride in the wilderness, so Big Thunder it was.

The listed wait was 45, and I did time this one. It was 30 minutes. I have seen a million videos of Big Thunder, and it did not prepare me, but I had so much fun. I was hysterically laughing the whole time, and we were waving to anyone we could see. 10000/10 would recommend and will definitely be going back on this one, even if it is as a single rider.

Unfortunately, it was time for me to go back to OKW. So Gavin walked me to the front of the park and we said our goodbyes.

At this point, it was 5:35 and my phone was at 1% so I called my mom to tell her I was getting on a bus and would be back soon.

Well, that was a lie.

I must have missed the bus by a minute because I waited 45 minutes for the next bus to come. There was only one other person in line with me and he was not having it when the bus finally showed up and they switched drivers due to it being a shift change. He used just about every word in the dictionary. I mean the same dude, but chill.

I did not get back into the room much before 6:45, so we decided that since we had been up since 3 am anyways, it was time to call it a night.

Stay tuned for the next update: A job interview on vacation?? + Epcot

 

[disney castle days]

Day 2 Part 1:

Hello all and welcome back!! Before I start this next update I wanted to share some exciting news…. WE ARE GOING BACK TO DISNEY!! I will insert the link for the PTR here once I get it started, so feel free to check it out

*No photos once again, my computer is broken right now*

Anyways back to this one:

We were up EARLY this morning! It was time to try out Genie+. I will admit, I was pretty skeptical about the new system, and was not really sure if we were going to like it, but I will get to the review later.

At 7:00 we booked a Spaceship Earth LL for I think 12:00 (we were not going into the parks until later) and a FEA LL for I think 3:15.

I took a shower at this point and got ready. One little complaint I had about our room in OKW was the water pressure was AWFUL. I mean I live in college housing and share a bathroom with 12 girls, and I would rather shower at college. The sinks also had a weird lack of water pressure too.

As mentioned in the title of this section, I had a job interview this morning. I was supposed to have it before we left but due to circumstances, it was rescheduled until this morning at I think 11.

Because of this we canceled our original breakfast reservations. Around 9:30 we decided to walk to the QS at OKW. My mom was a little unsure about the walk but honestly it was a nice walk and not that hard.

We both got the breakfast platter (From website: served with Eggs, Bacon, Potatoes and a Mickey-shaped Waffle). In hindsight, I probably should have just gotten the Mickey Waffle, because I only wanted a Mickey waffle and the scrambled eggs. My mom ate all of her’s and then ate my potatoes. We also bought our refillable mugs. I love the refillable mugs, although with OKW’s layout it was pretty annoying to have to walk so far to fill them (I would finish the drink by the time I got back).

After that, we went back to the room. When we got back we noticed my computer was dead, great. When it finally charged, I realized that I never recieved a Zoom link. After a half hour with no response to my email, we decided to leave for the parks (needless to say I did not get the job and wasted valuable Disney time).

So around 11:30 we got on the bus to Epcot. Security took a while, but we were in the park around 12:15. We went straight to Spaceship Earth.

Once again this may come as a surprise, but I had never been on Spaceship Earth! As a kid I was convinced it was a rollercoaster, and by the time I realized it was not the lines were always really long.

I didn’t write down how long we waited, but I believe it was under 5 minutes, I remember just walking on. I really enjoyed the ride, although your future part did not take pictures, so it was just the generic faces.

While in line for Spaceship Earth, we snagged a LL for figment for 12:30, so that was our next stop. By this point it had started to rain. There was only a 5 minute standby lane for Figment, so it was a waste of a LL imo, but we were in and out within a few minutes. We checked out the gift shop, but did not buy anything. We were thinking about going up to the DVC lounge, since it had been a while since we last went but decided against it. Instead we decided to grab a soda and pretzel and wait until the virtual queue for Remy’s came out.

This was our first time ever doing a boarding group for any ride. My mom had no clue that you had to join the boarding groups at 7, and I was doing the LL so we had missed the morning slot. Boarding groups and scheduling classes are basically the same experience, and I am apparently good at both. We got a return time of I think 6:30.

While eating and waiting we saw Joy! She was so cute with the little scarf, just running around. I really like that they have her out!

Our next stop after our break was Soarin! Our window opened at 12:45, but I think we got there aroun 1:15. Once again, I have never been on Soarin, and this time my mom hadn’t either. As mentioned in a previous post, I am not a heights person.

This was definitely our longest wait of the day, coming in at about 18 minutes. The posted time was 50 when we entered (and it was raining), so obviously 18 really was not bad.

We got the front row, which was slightly terrifying, but so much fun. I really enjoyed the ride, which is surprising since I hate taking off on airplanes. My mom enjoyed it, but felt a tad queasy afterwords.

We wanted to go to Living with the Land, but there was not a LL for a while and we wanted to start heading to World Showcase soon. For some reason we did get a Nemo LL for 1:55 at this point. I don’t recall what time it was, but not sure why we decided to head in that direction.

Nemo was a walk-on, and then we headed towards the World Showcase.

 

[disney castle days]

It's been a minute, but welcome back!

Day 2, Part 2:

So this park is going to be pretty quick because my notes basically don't exist for this afternoon.

We headed to World Showcase and went into the shop as soon as you enter World Showcase to see if we could find any 50th merch and to pick up the Olaf Scavenger Hunt map.

There was no 50th merch that interested us, which seemed to be a theme everywhere, the merch was just scarce the entire trip.

We purchased the Olaf Scavenger Hunt map and opted to get the prize there. We were expecting to get a lanyard, but instead got the Mickey's Kitchen sink sundae bowl. Not only is it such a strange prize, but we also already have one. We got it in maybe 2016 from the Plaza Restaurant.

We headed towards Mexico on a hunt to find some Olafs. We got all the way to the Italy pavilion when it started to rain so we decided to go back to Norway and take cover since we had about 20 minutes until our FEA lightning lane.

We walked around the shops and made fun of the heavy jackets being in Florida.

At 3:20 we got in line for FEA. This was both of our first times on this ride because we had never been able to get a FastPass for it before. We waited a total of 8 minutes on the ride before we got on the boat. We were seated in the last row.

The party in front of us had 2 little girls and a mother. The mother had her mask off and literally ripped the mask off the child (maybe 6) because "she didn't want it on for the photos". Well, we did not get the ride photo for this one either.

My mom and I both enjoyed the ride, although we decided that we would not wait over 30 minutes for it. My mother was also very startled by the drop, she had been on Malstrom before but had forgotten about it.

When we got off the ride I was hungry, and my mother was tired so we decided to head to Port Orleans French Quarter for a little bit to relax since Sassagoula's is one of our favorite quick services on property.

This was our first time using the mobile ordering on the app, and it worked pretty well. The restaurant had maybe 3 other families in it, so it was the nice and quiet environment we were looking for.

I think I got the kid's chicken strips. I am a pretty plain person when it comes to eating if you cannot tell. My mom got the Grilled Chicken Sandwich and enjoyed it.

We walked around the resort for a little and then headed back to Disney Springs.



We walked around Disney Springs for a little bit, but did not purchase anything. We watched a beautiful sunset from the boat dock, and then headed back to the hotel and called it a night.




I'll be updating shortly with Day 3 where we go to Hollywood Studios and the Christmas Party (and I have a lot of pictures!)

 

[disney castle days]

Day 3 Part 1:

Thanks to a very late breakfast reservation, this morning started off pretty slow.

I took a walk to the Hospitality House around 9 to go fill up our refillable mugs.

The walk was not terribly long, although at times it was obnoxious to walk all the way there just to fill the mugs. I absolutely love the views, especially the fountains though!



The last time we stayed at OKW before this trip, we were right near the HH. I preferred not being at the main bus stop and having the quiet pools this trip, but I think that near HH is much better for people who cannot walk as much, like my mother.

After filling the mugs and heading back to the hotel room, we went down to the bus stop to catch a bus to Hollywood Studios!

Hollywood Studios was not our stop however, we were just using it to get to our final destination: Cape May Cafe!

We went to the boat dock, and were the only ones on the boat so we sat in the back. The boat's captain said we did not need to wear our masks one the back deck since it was outside and an empty boat, although we do have them on in this picture.

(not sure how to rotate this)

We arrived at the Beach Club with about 10 minutes until our reservation.


The pathway we normally take to Cape May was closed due to some sort of construction, so we took a very odd route to the restaurant and were about 15 minutes late.

We waited 5 or so minutes before being sat in a booth.

I got water, and my mom got a coffee.

The meal was family-style at the time. My notes only say "good bread and watery eggs". Whatever that is supposed to mean.

Our waitress was super nice, and we sparked a conversation about my mom's Marie mask and the DCP.

By 11:30, we had finished up breakfast and were looking around the resort at the Christmas decorations. We stumbled upon one of my favorite displays at the hotels:



THE CAROUSEL!
We must have spent 20 minutes trying to find all of the hidden mickeys on it (and we did find all of them!)

We walked around the resort a little bit more, before heading back on the boat towards Hollywood Studios.

As we walked into the park, we were met by their Christmas Calvacade.


I like that the cavalcades are not just in Magic Kingdom, it is nice to see them in the other parks too! The characters all looked great in their Christmas best, and of course who doesn't want to see Santa!

At this point, it was about 12:30, and we had a 1:00 pm LL for toy story.

We went into Walt Disney Presents and looked around, but decided not to stay for the show, since we have both seen it many times.

We headed back towards Toy Story Land, and it was crowded. It was literally shoulder-to-shoulder. We still had 20 minutes until our LL, so I took some polaroids and we tried to stay in the shade.

Toy Story was listed at a 70-minute wait, but we got only waited 6 minutes.




I was player 2, so I won!

We were going to go to Galaxy's Edge, but there was just a wall of people, so we decided to head towards the front of the park to regroup and try to get another LL.

I think that LL was definitely not worth it for Hollywood Studios. It was super crowded that day, and the only reservations available at 1 were for like 7 pm or for MuppetVision (nothing against MuppetVision!). We thought it was worth it for MK and Epcot, but not HS and AK.

On our way to the front, we picked up a Nom-Nom cookie.




This was so good, and I cannot wait to eat another one in two weeks!

I wanted to get Starbucks so we went to the front of the park, but Starbucks was way too crowded. So we ate our cookie, took some polaroids, and then headed back to the hotel.

Up next: The Christmas Party!

 

[disney castle days]

*side note: I am trying to finish this before our next trip in 2 weeks, hence the number of posts*

Day 3 Part 2:

IT'S CHRISTMAS PARTY TIME!!!!!!!



We headed back to MK around 4:00 for reservations at the Crystal Palace.


While waiting to go inside we watched a cavalcade. I only remember the fab 5 being in it, not sure who else.

We were seated pretty quickly, but the place was CROWDED. We were on one of the tables that were around the circular plantar.

I don't remember what I ate, but I know I did not eat much. This was one of the only restaurants that were buffet-style at the time, and it made me pretty uncomfortable if I am being honest. We eat buffet-style every day at my college, so it was not necessarily that. I think it was the combination of the noise level and there being small kids everywhere. Obviously, I understand that children go to Disney, but there was a table of 4 or 5 kids near us and the kids were running around the restaurant the entire time, and knocking into people. The one kid dropped their full plate in the buffet line, and the parents did nothing. It was pretty chaotic.

After finishing up dinner, we headed over to the Haunted Mansion.

We got a LL for 5:10. The posted wait time was 45 minutes, but according to my stopwatch, we waited a total of 3 minutes and 48 seconds before entering the stretching room.

Right after getting off Haunted Mansion, I booked a LL for Buzz for 6:30.

We headed over to Tomorrowland, and since we had some time to kill, we went to Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. The posted time was 25 minutes, and we definitely waited 25 minutes. The show was good as usual.

It was then time for our Buzz LL. The listed wait time was 35 minutes, we waited 5 minutes.


I don't have a picture of my mom's score, but I won! One day I'll be a galactic hero, my brother has gotten it 4 times.

At this point, it was a little after 7. We got in the line to get our wristbands for the party.



After we got our wristbands, I wanted to find a good spot for Enchantment. We got a spot near one of the bridges that connect Tomorrowland with the hub and decided to stay there. I had watched Happily Ever After from there a few times and liked the spot.

I have mixed emotions about Enchantment. I prefer HEA because I absolutely love the music, but I also think it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I plan on watching it again on our next trip, and I am hoping it will grow on me a little bit more.

Right after Enchantment ended, we dashed straight over to the PeopleMover.

After the PeopleMover, we went on Tomorrowland Speedway around 8:30. We had not been on Speedway since I was probably 6. As a licensed driver, why is speedway actually so hard to drive on? I swear the car just kept bouncing back and forth no matter what I did. I was hysterically laughing and screaming the entire time. We were going so slow that the car behind us was riding our bumper because the car just would not go any faster.

From there we headed to Peter Pan's Flight.

Now I had never been on Peter Pan's Flight before because the line is always long, and my mom always says the ride is not worth the wait. We waited about 20 minutes for the ride. I have no clue how it always has such a long line. It's cute, but there is no way I would wait in a 30+ minute line for that attraction. I also am really curious about how they would evacuate it?

We then went on IASW!

So we wound up getting on 4 rides in about 1 1/2 hours during the party, which I think is pretty good.

We then went on a hunt for popcorn and drinks. We couldn't find the place in the hub, so we went to the one in the hub.

We got popcorn, ice cream, and waters, and it was time for the stage show.

I thought the stage show was really good! I liked it a lot better than the old one, however, I just find Clarabelle so annoying so I did not like her song. But, overall is was really good and I loved the costumes and song choices.

The hub cleared out after the show, so we decided to grab our fireworks spot. We probably could have done something else for a bit, but I was super tired.


We had such a good view of the fireworks. There wound up being more people in front of us by the time the fireworks started, but it was still super close!

Something we thought was really weird was a family left a blanket and their stroller full of their belongings out in the open and left. They came back for the fireworks, but for a while, it was just sitting there with no one looking after it. No one took anything from them, but I can't imagine leaving a stroller full of belongings in the middle of the hub.

I recorded the fireworks so I don't have pictures, but they were SO GOOD! The Halloween fireworks had always been my favorite, but I honestly think these might have got them beat. I really loved these.

After the fireworks, we started to head out and it was snoaping!


My mom had a shirt on that said "Let it Snoap" so I thought it was very fitting.





I took a few more pictures as we headed back to the bus stop, and then we went back to the hotel and fell asleep!

Coming next: A Very Lazy AK day

 

[disney castle days]

Day 4

This was our Animal Kingdom day!



We started pretty early this day, by catching a bus to Animal Kingdom so we could transfer over to AKL for a breakfast at Boma!

Boma is one of our favorite buffets on property! I believe our reservation was around 9:30 am this day!

Of course we started off with some POG juice


I am not the biggest fan of POG juice, but my mom loves it (and so does my brother who is always making it at home). I also got a water, and as you can see in the picture, we brought our reusable straws.

I don't have a picture of my plate, but I assume that it was mickey waffles, eggs, and fruit.

It was super crowded that morning, to the point that the buffet line almost wrapped around to where the check-in desk was. I remember it took a really long time. From the timestamps on my photos, we got our drinks at 10:00 and were done with breakfast around 11:20.

After breakfast, we looked at the Christmas tree



And then we went into the gift shop. We did not buy anything, but the AKL giftshop is one of my favorites so I always love taking a look in there.

We then took a bus over to AK, and entered the park by noon.



AK is probably our least favorite park, in fact, we are not even going on our next trip. We mainly went so we could park hop later and to get this little buddy



We named him Bronnie, after the YouTuber Once Upon a Bron. We originally saw the penguin in her videos and I really wanted one, but they were sold out of penguins, so we got the polar bear. He is currently chilling in the family room in a chair.

By 12:30 we decided to head out of the park, with our new friend in stow.



We headed back to OKW and I went to the pool.

Originally I want to the main pool, but it was way to crowded and I could not find a seat, so I went over to the South Point pool.

It was not crowded in comparison to the main pool, but there were probably 15-20 people there which is a lot given its size.

I hung out there for an hour or two listening to a podcast.

Eventually, I went back to the room. We had Doritos and some other snacks, so I grabbed some snacks and sat on the porch for a bit.

Around 4 o'clock, we took a boat over to Disney Springs to head to dinner, which was at Maya Grill at Coronado.

We left early but not nearly early enough, we waited over an hour for a bus and were 30 minutes late for our reservation. Luckily, Maya Grill is not too popular so we were able to be seated and had no problem.



We started off with the chips and salsa which were very good.

I got the Traditional Taco Salad

From the Website:

Traditional Taco Salad​

Nacho Beef, Monterey Jack Cheese, Avocado, Bell Peppers, Esquites, Black Olives, Pico de Gallo, Mexican Crema, Avocado Dressing served in a Tortilla Bowl

My mom got the Chicken Enchiladas.

We both loved our meals. It was our first time here and definitely will not be the last.

We finished the meal off with the 50th-anniversary dessert


This was absolutely INSANE. It cost, I believe, $35 (which we did not see when we ordered lmao).

This is the description I found : A festively decorated Chocolate Pyramid filled with Mexican Chocolate Mousse and Toffee atop a traditional Tres Leches Cake, and accompanied by Ice Cream. Perfect for sharing

It was amazing, but also so large. We ate maybe 1/5th of it and then took the rest home and slowly ate it throughout the rest of the trip.

We finished out the day by wandering around the hotel for a while and then heading to Disney Springs and getting the boat back to the hotel.

 

[disney castle days]

Days 5 & 6 : Weekend Vibez

So I do not have any notes from the weekend, so I am going to based on my memories and the few pictures I have. So this will probably be short.

Saturday morning we headed to the OKW gift shop and picked up a puzzle of the castle. I think we also picked up banana bread. The banana bread at the gift shop is AMAZING. I am guessing we went to Goods Food to Go for Breakfast and got Mickey Waffles.

That afternoon we headed over to Disney Springs and walked around for a while.

We had dinner reservations at the Boathouse, so we watched the amphicars launch for a solid 30 minutes. I really want to ride one eventually, but that didn't happen this trip.



Dinner started off with these rolls, which were really good.




For dinner, I got the Garden Salad with Grilled Chicken. I was not a huge fan of this at all. It was very bland, which I guess makes sense for an $8 salad. Definitely would not recommend this as your main meal.

My mom made a similar mistake and got the Hand-Breaded Coconut Shrimp. She thought this was a full meal, but I believe it was maybe 5 shrimp with a sauce.

We both opted to not get dessert.

Overall, we did not like the Boathouse, but I think a lot of it had to do with the meals we choose as well as how crowded the restaurant was the entire time. We had 3 different waiters/waitresses throughout the course, so the service was not great.

SUNDAY

So Sunday started off with brunch at CityWorks.

We started off with the "Jon Bun Jovi" which was a gigantic cinnamon roll. This was so good, and being from Jersey we loved the Bon Jovi reference.

I got the "Clash Smash": Smashed Avocado on toasted Challah, Roasted Corn, pickled Red Onion, shaved Radish, sunny-side Eggs, Lemon oil dressing, Microgreens

This was really good. It had hard-boiled eggs on it, so I am not sure if the menu has slightly changed since December. I plan on getting this again in the future.

My mom got the "Mother's Little Helper": Our "hangover bowl" filled with smoked Cheddar Grits, Braised Pork Belly, breakfast Sausage Links, fried Eggs, smoked Tomato Charred Scallion Relish

This was recommended to her by our waiter and she really enjoyed it.

We sat outside, and there were maybe 4 other parties there. We enjoyed it and will definitely be back.

We walked around the Springs a bit, and then took a bus to the Contemporary!

We wanted to see all the decorations at the monorail hotels for Christmas.

We started at the contemporary and checked out the decorations, and the gift shop. While we were there I bought a Rice Krispie Treat.




Next, we headed to the Poly. We hung out in the lobby for a little bit and then headed over to the Grand Floridan. We checked out the gingerbread house (although we did not by anything there) and then just hang out in the lobby.

I know we had dinner reservations for this day that we wound up canceling. I have no clue what we did the rest of the day.

In the next post we head to Topolino's for breakfast!

 

[disney castle days]

Day 7

We started our day by catching a bus to Hollywood Studios so we could get over to the Riveria for breakfast. We did not realize that the only transportation from HS to Riveria was the Skyliner at the time.

Let's just say we were a little shocked when we realized it.

I was kind of excited to take the Skyliner after I faced my fear of rollercoasters earlier in the trip.



The Skyliner from HS to the transfer station did not have the characters on it, and we were by ourselves. It was a pretty smooth ride, and was not bad at all.

When we got on the one at the transfer station, we were put with another family of 3, which was a little uncomfortable in my opinion, especially given the covid levels at the time. I wish that they did not combine parties, but otherwise, we enjoyed the Skyliner.

We arrived at Riveria and took some pictures of the Skyliner station



These Murals are so pretty and so large.

We then headed into the building and up to Topolinos.

We were in a booth facing the middle. This picture of painter Mickey gives a better idea



We got our pastries before the characters came out




We both really enjoyed these. The mini muffins were really good!

Then the characters started to come out.

Our food came out right after Minnie.



I got the adult Mickey Waffle Dippers. The sauces were syrup, raspberry syrup, and chocolate sauce. I did not try the chocolate sauce because I have a hazelnut allergy so I need to be careful with chocolate sauces, but the other two were good.



My boy Donald came around while we were eating. I absolutely love this outfit!!

Daisy took a while to come out, and I think we were done with out meal before she did.



Her outfit is cute! I am not a huge fan of Daisy, so I wish Pluto was here instead but it is nice to see her in the restaurants more.

After breakfast, we took a bus over to the Magic Kingdom.

It was so crowded. I believe park reservations were maxed out on this day, and you could tell. The people mover was even at a 30-minute wait.

We had ridden most of the rides that we wanted to so we decided to just do some shopping and hang around.

In the search for a Christmas Ornament, we came across the 50th snow globe and I fell in love. I have had an obsession with snow globes since I was little so we HAD to get this. We got it shipped home, and here is a picture of it in our house.




This thing is just so cool.

After purchasing the snowglobe and getting the shipping squared away, we went on a hunt for the Christmas popcorn bucket but did not have any luck.

We wound up near Haunted Mansion, which was at a 50-minute wait. The Liberty Bell was about to dock and load, so we decided to get on it.

I had never been on the Liberty Bell before. It was nice, but I am going to be honest, I have no clue how they still get away with using the audio they did. Some of it was a little bit questionable in my opinion.

We then walked around the park for a bit and just took it all in. I think after going so many times, we really enjoy walking around and enjoying the atmosphere of everything. I don't think we went on any more rides for the day. We watched a few cavalcades and just enjoyed being there.

We went back to the hotel eventually and made cookies from the cookie box they are selling in the hotel gift shops. We then put Luca on, started to pack, and relaxed in the hotel room for the last night.

Next Up: Checkout day

 

[disney castle days]

Day 8: Last Day

We had a 7 pm flight, so we had quite a bit of time to go to MK in the morning.

We had 11 am reservations for lunch at the Plaza, which was the time they opened. I miss when they were doing breakfast a while ago.

We headed to MK around 10:00, after giving our luggage to the concierge. It was downpouring that morning, so we had our ponchos on.

We were one of the first parties to sit for the day. We were in the round area of the restaurant, and it was a little tight since there were 2 parties of 6 on either side of us.

I ordered the BLT salad



This was the blandest salad I have ever had in my life. I think I maybe ate 1/10 of the salad, and even my mom did not want to finish it. The waitress was very nice and kept asking me if I wanted anything else, but there was really nothing else on the menu that I ate. I probably should have asked for something off the kid's menu, but I also tend to not eat the day of flights because I am super afraid of getting sick on the plane.

After lunch, we headed over to the Little Mermaid Ride. The listed wait time was 15 minutes, and we waited about 17 minutes. This was probably the first time I have ever waited in a line there, but the queue was pretty neat.

After we got off the ride, we headed towards Tomorrowland to see how long the wait for PeopleMover was. While we were over there, we saw Stitch, who was hiding from the rain.


Also, you can see in this picture that my mom is wearing the Stitch spirit jersey. We both bought ones at some point on this trip, and it is by far both of our favorite spirit jerseys we have gotten! It is a lot lighter and more comfortable than the older style ones.

We went on PeopleMover which had a 15-minute wait. Then we looked around some stores in Tomorrowland.

We then went over to the castle to take some pictures.






We then went into the shops on Main Street to look for a Christmas Ornament and a dog collar.


This is the collar we bought, as modeled by Zeke. It is upside down in this picture, but it is green and silver and is reflective.

We had no luck with the ornament. At this point, it was about 2. We decided to head out of the park and go on one final trip on the monorail.

While we were on the monorail, we saw the most beautiful rainbow. We consider rainbows good luck, so we were so happy to end the vacation this way.

We headed back to OKW.

We bought this ornament at the gift shop (picture from google).



We got an order of fries, filled our mugs for the last time, and waited for the tragical express.

The tragical express was 20 minutes late from our pick-up time, and it was a Mears bus, not a Magical Express. Our flight was not delayed at all, and by 9:30 we were back in NJ.

Coming up next: final thoughts & future plans

 

[disney castle days]

Final Thoughts & Future Plans

Overall, we had a great trip back to Disney after it was delayed multiple times.

I am not a huge fan of having to reserve the days in advance, and I hate the park hopping after 2 rule.

We liked using Genie+ and will be using it again, hopefully, we have good luck again. The ILL is convenient, however, we wish we did not need them. I mean nothing beats an 8-minute wait for FEA, but if we had more than 2 people in our party, I don't think we could justify the costs.

We love OKW, and the location was great for us. Next time, we would request near HH, but we did enjoy the quietness of our location and the closeness to the bus.

Most of the new restaurants we tried, we really liked. Topolino's, Maya Grill, and CityWorks have become new favorites of ours. We will probably try Boathouse again in the future but were not impressed with this trip. We also will probably not be going to the Plaza again in the foreseeable future.

The Skyliner is great and is a lot smoother than I expected it to be. I was afraid of staying at Riveria because of it, but we hope to stay there in the future.

We had some trouble with the bus transportation, but I think at this point we know to expect and plan it.

Future Plans: I have mentioned it before, but we are leaving in a few days for a 5 day stay at VGF. Here is the link for the Pre-Trip Report and I will be starting the trip report shortly after we return!

Thank you all so much for reading along, I hope you enjoyed it! See you soon!