Traveling with tweens - a late summer trip to Florida - UPDATED

[Naglejen]

Hello there!!!!

We are a family of four from NYC. Since we start school so late, we get to take advantage of the relatively lower crowds and definitely lower DVC point rooms when we travel at this time.

This is us (left to right) - lovely wife Rose, DD P (11), DD M (11 now, but 12 next week), and me, Jen.

We were actually a bit on the fence about traveling down to Florida at all, given the COVID situation and M’s dislike of the heat and walking. I’m really glad we made the trip, though, and at the end of the day, we decided that we felt pretty safe at Disney.

We started at Margaritaville, in Kissimmee. It is a lovely and very chill resort. No one was really wearing masks anywhere, which if that is your thing, definitely check out this resort and attached shopping/dining district.

We got in late in the afternoon, went to bed early, and the next day we rented a cabana and spent the day at the pool.
I am hiding from the sun in the cabana so I don’t burn to a crisp!

P was disappointed that the surrey bikes stopped renting out at around 5:30, because she really wanted to bike around. I felt bad that I didn’t think to ask earlier how late they went; I figured they would go to at least sunset, but I was wrong. We walked down to Sunset Walk to our Ford’s Garage reservation, got some shaved ice from Bahama Buck’s, and called it a night.



Note two things - this is a small serving (!!!), and the bomb pop shaved ice comes with a bomb pop!!

I really had a hard time relaxing, so I made a last minute crazy call to DVC to see if we could upgrade our stay at AKL to a two bedroom or a savanna view. As it so happened, they had a two bedroom savanna view room available for the length of our stay, and we had points we were probably going to have to bank with RCI, so we splurged!

I was going to make it a surprise, but I spilled the beans almost immediately - the kids were pretty excited!

Next up: AKL calls, and I must go…

 

[Naglejen]

We woke up early-ish on Monday, and left Margaritaville. I forgot to mention the scent they use at the resort - I think it is called Mother, Mother Ocean, but I am not 100% certain - is DIVINE. I loved it, and it is definitely in evidence in the lovely lobby. We took a quick picture in the lobby, but our driver was super early, so we had to skedaddle.


And…we’re off!

This was our very first trip as DVC members. When everything went upside down in 2020, we had to cancel a long and meticulously planned Disney trip. Instead of doing something adult with the money, I turned right around and bought a couple of resale contracts. I think I just SO wanted something to look forward to. Anyhow, I’d never stayed at either resort we bought into (AKL and Poly), and I’d never even been to Animal Kingdom Lodge, but I just felt so certain that this would be the right move for our fam.

As we drove up, I panicked for a minute. What if I was wrong?

Then, in just a few minutes, we came up to the sign….



Up next: Dumela!

 

[buteraa]

Awesome! Following along....

 

[Naglejen]

Awesome! Following along....

Thank you for joining!!!

 

[Naglejen]

We pulled up to the lobby of Kidani, and were welcomed immediately. This was hands down the friendliest place at Disney I have been to. Every single cast member I ran into for the entire length of our stay greeted us, and many asked if there was anything they could do to make our stay more pleasant, especially the housekeeping cast members.

I picked up our magic bands while Rose and the small ladies went to go peep the savanna.


A beautiful view from the lobby!


It’s got a freaking savanna!!!

I am being honest here - I was completely unprepared for the emotional response I had to this resort. I had tears in my eyes for a second. I was JUST SO HAPPY. And so relieved I didn’t make a terrible mistake in buying into a resort sight unseen!

Our room wasn’t ready, and the man at the front desk was so apologetic. I made sure he knew we understood that the room wasn’t expected until after 4, we gave our luggage to bell services to hold, and put on our magic bands.


Wonder quad powers, activate!

Then we were off to Animal Kingdom for our first park day

Next up: Where the heck is everyone???

 

[Naglejen]

Now, normally, I find AK to be super hot and humid. So I was super surprised to find that, while it was very sunny, it was also pretty breezy.

And almost no one was there.


It didn’t get more crowded than this all day.

We truly were shocked by the emptiness of the park. I had heard that the parks were far less busy than normal, and I knew that this is a slow time of year anyhow, but I wasn’t expecting this. I was worried about getting on rides, but (spoiler alert!) for the first several days, most rides were a walk on!

Upon getting to the river, we were greeted by a river cavalcade! These are a fun addition to the AK experience; I don’t recall ever seeing these pre-COVID.

Ducks on safari!!!

We had a kind of long morning, so after getting a ways into the park, we were feeling a little rumpled. Time for a cold drink at Drinkwallah!


I just love the details in this park, even down to the signage.

Slushes!

On this particular day, they didn’t have any non-souvenir cups, so I sprung for these. They live in our owner’s locker now

Feeling restored, we made our way to Expedition Everest - everyone wanted to see the Yeti!


Eeeeek! Yeti!!!!

Before I post this next picture, I want to remind everyone that this was our first thrill ride - heck, our first ride - since 2019. We look a mess lol


I look like I am asleep, and everyone else looks terrified!

We ended up doing this as a walk on 3 times in a row. By the third time, we had all seen the Yeti and had enough of Mt Everest for the day. We decided against doing Kali River Rapids right away, so we made our way over to Pandora.

Next up: how many times can you ride a banshee without getting a headache?

 

[Naglejen]

We were feeling a little peckish, so we grabbed some lunch at Harambe Market on the way. The food was delicious, and not as junk food-y as I had feared. Also, I LOVE mobile order!

No longer hangry, we headed on over to Pandora. I love the transition from the rest of the park to that land, starting with the sign.


I don’t think we’re in Kansas….er, Florida….anymore

Does anyone know how to make this pod thing spit water? I think there is something you do, but I don’t know what or where.


Or maybe I’m wrong and it just does what it does???

The line for Flight of Passage said 10 min on MDE, so we got in line right away. We zoomed through.

We were traveling so quickly I barely got a pic!


This is the room right before you get placed in your row to wait to board, notice how empty the queue is behind us.

We didn’t stop once while going through the queue! After going once, we turned around and went again, and had the same complete lack of line. Finally, P wanted to go one more time, but we made a sad discovery - the visual effects were giving M a splitting headache, and she wanted to go back to the hotel (in general, she doesn’t have that much stamina for parks, so when paired with the headache and a knee issue, the poor kid was at the end of her little rope).

As a compromise, we split up - M and I waited and went on Navi’i River Journey to kill some time, and Rose took P on for a final run.


A much happier M

I personally love this ride. It is v chill.


Plus, as a bonus, your clothes usually glow in the black light!


Restorative Night Blossom

By the time we disembarked, found Rose and P, and bought a round of Night Blossoms for all, we realized we had gotten a text at 2:25 telling us our room was ready. And not a moment too soon - P could have gone all day, but M was exhausted.

Next up: it’s over 1,100 steps from the lobby to the end of the left side Kidani hall, ASK ME HOW I KNOW lol

 

[GDubDIS]

Wow, TEN minutes for flight of passage is amazing! And I'm so happy you're loving AKL - I've never been there either but looks like a great place to have as a home resort for DVC.

Excited to follow along with the rest of the trip!

 

[Naglejen]

Wow, TEN minutes for flight of passage is amazing! And I'm so happy you're loving AKL - I've never been there either but looks like a great place to have as a home resort for DVC.

Excited to follow along with the rest of the trip!

Thanks for following along!

Truly, even though the posted wait time for FoP was 10 min, we didn’t actually wait at all - it took about 5 min to walk the queue, otherwise our wait would have been 0 min!

 

[Naglejen]

So the thing about last minute room changes is that it throws your previous room requests right out the window. We had requested a room near the lobby. What we got was this room:


Room 7778 is alllll the way at the end of the hall on the 3rd floor. Rose checked her phone pedometer, and it was over 1,100 steps to get there; it took around 5-10 min. And yes, at the end of a long day, it’s a hike. But I’m going to tell you a secret about this room - if you like zebras, giraffes, and those weird thick horned cattle, this is the BEST room. I feel like we had a herd of each right out the window every single time I looked. We got so lucky with our room!


Rose and new frens

I mean, they were everywhere right outside our window, at all hours.


This zebra dude would follow the giraffes around and pick up what they dropped.


Giraffes literally cavorting about


Some springbok have joined the party (I believe this one was out one of the windows that line the hall on the loooooooong trek to the room)


This type of bird was not a frequent visitor to our part of the savanna, but he did put in an occasional appearance


This chonky guy really enjoyed waking me up at 1am by loudly mooing.

That was the only real noise I heard from any of the animals at night. It scared me the first time, because I thought something had happened. I popped out on the balcony, only to see this dude basically yelling at a herd of wildebeests. They looked very offended.

The room itself had everything we could have asked for. The small ladies had their own room, we did too, and there were three - yes, THREE - complete bathrooms!



We showered and got ready for our reservation at Boma. The children still managed to argue about the shower in the master bedroom though.

Up next: the world’s most expensive chicken nuggets

 

[Naglejen]

Showered and feeling a bit less grimy, we went out to ask how to get to Jambo. Apparently, you can walk, but there is also a shuttle that will take you there. We were tired, so we opted for the shuttle.

Jambo at night is gorgeous.

It looks so pretty from the outside

Their gift shop just opened. It’s quite a bit bigger than the one at Kidani. Since we were early, we killed some time there.


There was an older gentleman carving a figure when we arrived, sitting right outside the gift shop.

Then we made our way down to Boma.


There were beautiful lamps all over the ceiling


And the food was wonderful, although some of it was definitely unfamiliar, flavor-wise.


In general, our fam likes to try new things. P as a young child would sing “I’m gonna eat youuuuuuu” to the crabs in the Chinatown fish market, and has literally dragged me all over that neighborhood looking for fish balls. I will try anything that doesn’t have mayo, sour cream, or cream cheese. And Rose likes to try new things all the time.

We do have one super picky eater with us. M would always like a burger (she’s not that picky about what kind of burger), or maybe a plain chicken. So I’m always a bit worried when we go somewhere like Boma. Luckily, they had what she called “the best chicken nuggets at Disney,” and some Mac and cheese.

M with the nuggets!

I’ve learned to let go of the $49 price tag for the buffet nugs and just concentrate on the fact that she is happy

P robbled a bunch of my food. When I pointed out she could go get more herself, she said it tasted better because it was mine.
She’s a cute little robbler

Finally, it was time for dessert. We tried some of everything.
Unsurprisingly, the zebra domes were a favorite.

Finally, we paid our bill, and waited for the shuttle. It was a lovely end to a wonderful day.


Even the drop off area is pretty

Next up: I have to rise at WHAT time to join the ROTR queue?!?!?!

 

[a1tinkfans]

Beautiful family!!! Those SMILES. We love returning to AKL, usually jambo house but Kidani is so great also. the nite time Safari at Kidani ( which prob isn’t running right now) is something to keep in mind for another trip.. night vision goggles out on the Savannah.. we chose the latest one… I think like 10pm… bet you all would love it!
I laughed about the $49. Nuggets… I had one of those picky types too, u brought back some funny memories for me. …after all the strangest things eaten while studying abroad S Korea …a few years back, …eats Much more variety lol. Great report!!! Thx for sharing!!!

 

[Naglejen]

Beautiful family!!! Those SMILES. We love returning to AKL, usually jambo house but Kidani is so great also. the nite time Safari at Kidani ( which prob isn’t running right now) is something to keep in mind for another trip.. night vision goggles out on the Savannah.. we chose the latest one… I think like 10pm… bet you all would love it!
I laughed about the $49. Nuggets…

Thanks for coming along, and for the rec! I’m hoping that the next time we are at AKL, those tours will be back

I suspect we aren’t the only members of the $49 nugget club lol

 

[Naglejen]

I am not a morning person. All who know me know this about me. If it means I can squeak out another 5 min to my sleep, I am willing to do just about anything.

So it is a bit crazy to me that I find myself up at 6:30 in the morning, checking my wifi and looking at videos about how to get a spot in the ROTR virtual queue.

After checking out the info I could find, everyone seemed to agree - when it lets you in, just smash the buttons until you get a result, don’t stop to consider anything. Then Rose and I literally sat there from about 6:50 to 6:58, just watching the seconds tick by.

At 6:59, I went into the virtual queue part of MDE. Then Rose counted down by 5 second intervals until the final 5 seconds.

At 6:59:59, I refreshed - I was IN!!!!!

****SMASH****
****SMASH****
****SMASH****

Then I held my breath, while it processed.

Lucky number 13!

That little moment of stress out of the way, I tried to go back to sleep, but I was wide awake at this point, so I got up, made some coffee, and watched the animal keepers refill the giraffe mangers, and generally saw the savanna wake up.

There were warthogs under our balcony! I watched them root around for a while, then the giraffes came by to say hello.


Hello giraffe buddies

It was very peaceful on the savanna. However, kids were waking up in the room behind me, and it was becoming decidedly less peaceful in there!

Our kiddos are polar opposites in lots of ways. M is our sweet morning glory - almost always the first one up, ready to go eat breakfast whenever. She canNOT hang late - more on this later - but is generally very easy going and alert in the early morning.

Then there is P.

P is a model of the concept of inertia. And when that body is at rest, it wants to STAY at rest! The flip side is also true - once she gets going, she will go, go, GO until she is exhausted. This dynamic between the two becomes important later.

At this particular moment, though, M is trying to get P out of bed; P is pretending to be asleep.

I was hoping to rope drop HS, and against all odds, we did make it in before 9! We headed straight to Rockin Rollercoaster, which was a walk on - they didn’t even have the room with Aerosmith going yet.



I just love their faces on this one!

We were in the first car, and went on several times after, still with no wait.

Everyone still refused to go on ToT with me (this is a recurring Disney problem of mine lol), so we left our little quiet corner of HS.

Then we made our way over to Toy Story land. We got in line for SDD right away - the line said 25 min, i think, but it was more like 15.


Even so, M was definitely feeling hot and uncomfortable


Woo hoo!!!!!

After disembarking, we ran over to Midway Mania. While we were in line, we got out ROTR alert, but we figured we had time. We had somehow never been on this ride before! I found it to be really fun, even though I had the lowest score of all! It turns out that I am very bad at carnival games, especially when it feels like things are flying in my face!

Most of us really enjoyed this queue!

Then the girls and Rose ran over to Alien Swirling Saucers while I took a break. It only claimed a 5 min wait, but it was 15 before they got on the ride.


P is ready to swirl!

All of a sudden, the girls and Rose were pulled off the ride. Apparently, the gate was accidentally opened, they were trying to get people on from the other side onto our side, because they had been waiting a long time (something was wrong on the other side). They were the only ones from the group who boarded who were pulled off, and they weren’t sitting anywhere close to each other, so I’m honestly puzzled about why they were chosen. Also, when the ride started running, both the vehicles they were in were empty

They were told they would get on one of the next rides, but it was near the end of our ROTR window, so we decided to leave. We got about 10 steps away when P realized that she left her pin lanyard in the ride pocket (this is when i noticed the empty vehicles). The cast members got it back for her, and also gave them a pass for a return time later, since I didn’t want to miss our ROTR time, which was nice.

It was a pretty short walk over there. Rose and I were pretty excited, the kids were like meh, but game to go over.



It was both sad and awesome that we didn’t have time to observe the details in the line


Next up: We rise to the resistance, then cool off

 

[Naglejen]

We had a great time on ROTR. By this point, though, M was at the end of her endurance. We stopped by the ABC Commissary for lunch, largely because it is the only air conditioned quick service that I know at HS.

M was appreciative of the air conditioning, and everyone enjoyed the food. We usually do more table service, but decided to go a different way this time. I was super (pleasantly) surprised by how good everything was at all of our QS stops!

The girls enjoying the food, the A/C, and the fact that I’m letting them have soda with lunch.

By this point, it was evident that M was miserable, so we headed back to Kidani. On our way out, we ran into Edna Mode and Sully, two of my personal faves.


Luckily, the bus came pretty quickly, and in no time at all, we were in the pool.


M waits for P at the bottom of the slide

We spent some time in the pool, then decided to return to HS, now that we were cooler (as was the air).

Next up: Hangin’ with the one who can hang

 

[princessbelle2015]

Enjoying your report! You have a beautiful family!❤❤

 

[snikki]

We always do midday breaks at the pool. The heat and stimulation gets to all of us after a while. Especially in august !

We also hope to try Boma next trip. We’ve never been to AKL either.

Great start to your trip. Can’t wait to read more !

 

[Naglejen]

Enjoying your report! You have a beautiful family!❤❤

Thank you so much for reading!!!!

 

[Naglejen]

We always do midday breaks at the pool. The heat and stimulation gets to all of us after a while. Especially in august !

We also hope to try Boma next trip. We’ve never been to AKL either.

I’m kind of a park endurance person, but I have recently realized that one of the two small ladies just can’t enjoy a whole day. So we decided to try something else, and it worked out pretty well.

I highly recommend both AKL and Boma, especially if you are an animal lover. I don’t think I mentioned it, but there are animal specialists at the big viewing areas - and on this pool day, even out by the pool bar! - as well as an “animal information” button on the phone.

 

[Naglejen]

So after the pool time and some downtime, we decided to go back to HS. We went straight for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. When we were there earlier, the line was listed as 35 min, I think. But by the time we came back around 6:30, it was listed as 5 min - and we actually pretty much just walked into the preshow, it was probably a 2 min wait.


Straight into the air conditioned part of the queue!

This was SUCH a cute and funny ride! We did get stuck in Daisy’s dance studio for quite a while, while she stood there with her eyes closed. I heard someone muttering “what ya waiting for, duck?” lol

We disembarked from there, and decided to hop over to Rockin Rollercoaster one more time, since it listed a 5 min wait again.

Another walk on!

By this point, I should have known that poor M was a bit off. A few things seemed to be going against her. First, the visual effects in MMRR, then the upside down coaster, and finally the time (M starts zoning out by 8), and it was all too much for her. She wanted to go back to the hotel, so Rose took her back, leaving me with our resident night owl.

P and I went on everything.

We went on Slinky Dog Dash

The people in front of us look really heckin bored!

From there, we went to the wonderful world of Star Wars!

I believe we are lost at this point.


Excuse me, have you seen the Millennium Falcon?

I literally pulled a cast member over to ask that question about 10 seconds before I took this - he just pointed over my shoulder


P wants YOU to join the resistance.

We did two (?) rounds on this. The first time, this man came trucking up the final ramp, full speed. I pulled P over and let a few people get between us. He looked WAY too serious for our vibe!

We were engineers twice, I think. Our first group we were with were SO FUN! And SOOOOOO bad at piloting lol. It didn’t matter, it was a hoot!!!

The next round, our ship had more serious but better pilots. They were perfectly nice, and we didn’t crash at all (which my back and neck really appreciated!), but at the end of the day, give me fun (if terrible) pilots any day!

By now, the day was running out. P had to make a choice - RnRC, SDD, or something else. We headed back to Toy Story Land.


To infinity….and beyond!!!!!!!

We never, ever seem to be at the front on Slinky Dog, but this time, luck was on our side.


Number one, baby!

We rode over and over again until they shut down the line. As we made our way to the front, we realized that there was some sort of evening show.

P hates firework booms, and I was worried about crowds, so we speed walked to the bus depot. The bus came pretty quickly, and we were back at Kidani eating pizza Rose and M made us in no time. And as I headed for bed, looking forward to sleeping in later, M’s tiny voice floated from the kids’ bedroom. “Mommy? Can we go on Rise of the Resistance again tomorrow?”

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

*sets alarm for 6:30*

“OK, honey. We can try.”