Escape to Our Home Away from Home After Three Years - A July 2021 Trip Report (**Updated 6/26**)

[cstorm65]

Day 10 Part 1 - The Morning Planned by Kids

We woke up the next morning and got ready for a rope drop at the Magic Kingdom. Our plan was to do Seven Dwarfs at rope drop and then today was the day we had told the boys we would let them decide what we would do along the way, so we will see how that plays out!

We started walking over at 8:10 from Bay Lake, which ended up being a little late for the 9:00 AM opening. Here is how far back we ended up in the Seven Dwarfs crowd.

Again, why can’t they do it like Hollywood Studios. Go ahead and let everyone go line up in the Seven Dwarfs Queue even if you don’t open the ride until 9:00 AM. I mean, why not? That would make things so much simpler at rope drop.

Anyway, we all saw the crowds were back today and decided we would head to Space Mountain instead. So when they let people go we hung a right and weren’t at the very front of the space line, but we only waited about 20 minutes.

Brooks kept saying he loved Space Mountain, but he wanted me to keep a hand on him at all times! He was not a fan of only having one person in a seat! haha

After that they boys decided to…shop. Yep, we are in the Magic Kingdom at rope drop and these two wanted to shop. Oh well, it was their day to plan, so they looked in the Space exit gift shop and then also in Mickey’s Star Traders.

After some shopping they did decide on doing the Speedway, I’m telling you they loved this ride on the trip, so we sped around the loop at a quick 0.75 mph.

After the Speedway the boys chose Buzz Lightyear, which took us about 20 minutes as it was about 10:30 by this point. We had a good ride and afterwards we were letting the boys decide what to do next. Well they chose…swimming.

At first I said, “Boys, there is no swimming pool at the Magic Kingdom”. They didn’t like my sarcasm and we realized they were serious. They have the Magic Kingdom and they want to swim. Well, it’s your day! So, we walked back to Bay Lake Tower and got our swimsuits on.

We got our suits on, got on the elevator, and literally as we got to the gate into the pool they shut it down due to lightning. The boys were not happy!

We told them the storm probably wouldn’t last too long and so we went to grab some lunch at Contempo Cafe. I didn’t get any pictures because we were all set to go to the pool and I’m not sure I even had my phone, but lunch was good. April loved the turkey sandwich she got and I enjoyed the all meat flatbread. It was still storming after lunch so we went ahead and decided to let Brooks nap and Braxton draw a bit to relax in the lobby. Then the plan would be to swim after the storm clears.

While we were relaxing in the lobby I was stalking my lightning detector and at about 2:00 we saw that we were close to being able to swim so we headed back to get ready. By 2:30 we were inside the pool area and had secured a chair. We just stayed at the Bay Lake Tower pool today and the boys had fun playing. This pool is not as big as the main Contemporary pool and it gets quite a bit more crowded, but after the rain it wasn’t super crowded today.

After swimming for a couple of hours we had to head back upstairs at about 4:30 to get ready for our dinner that evening. The boys were happy with their day they had planned, except for the storm, but we will see if they like the dinner reservation. It is another new restaurant for us!

Up Next: That Tastes Unbelievable​

 

[cstorm65]

Day 10 Part 2 - That Tastes Unbelievable

After a nice relaxing afternoon at the pool we headed back up to get ready for our dinner reservation. We had a 5:10 reservation at a place we had never been to before (and would never go to again because it was getting changed), The Wave. We headed across the walkway ready for a delicious dinner!

We were sat quickly and we all decided what we were going to have, although we new exactly what appetizer we would order!

We started with some bread service, which was good.

Then we tried the infamous Bacon and Eggs appetizer. I had heard so many good things about this, but I wasn’t sure. I’m not a huge grits fan just because we never ate them while I grew up and pork belly is also not something you eat every day. Well, it was unbelievable! It may have been the best tasting thing I’ve had at Disney, ever!

The grits were so good in the dish I loved them and again, I’m not even a big grits eater. It was a perfect dish! Both boys decided on the kids meal that was penne pasta with red sauce. Braxton loved it and ate every bit of it. Brooks ate most of it, although he was not a fan of the green beans…too healthy for him! They both were able to get a sundae as one of their sides which I’ll have a pic of below.

I got the Pork Tenderloin for my entree and it was very good. I may have decided to get this after tasting how good the cheesy grits were with the appetizer! Those grits were delicious again and the pork was cooked perfectly.

April did a Caesar Salad and Crab Cake appetizer for her meal, and she loved the crab cakes. We traded a few bites of our meals and both enjoyed each other's choices. The crab cakes had a nice spicy green sauce that I enjoyed with them.

Here were the boys' sundaes that they got with their kids' meal!

We don’t always order dessert, but it wouldn’t have been fair for us adults if the kids got dessert and we didn’t? Right??

So, we decided to try the chocolate flight. One of the options was a creme brulee on a chocolate brownie which we thought was a little strange, but it was really good. April is not a bread pudding fan, so she didn’t like the chocolate bread pudding, but I really enjoyed it. The other was a German chocolate cake. It was my least favorite of the three options, but still good.

Overall this was an awesome meal and we were sad to think that this restaurant was going to be changed. Our server was Dede and she was great. She made some great recommendations and was great with the boys. I know Steakhouse 71 has been a hit and they have kept some of the charm of this place, which is good. We look forward to trying that in the future!

We didn’t have many plans for the rest of the night as we wanted the boys to get in bed a little early since we were going to make it to Animal Kingdom rope drop tomorrow and AK was opening at 8 AM. We asked the boys what they wanted to do at the resort and they wanted to go shoot some hoops for a few minutes, so we walked over to the basketball courts and let them do that for about 30-45 minutes!

I think after that we ran over and refilled our mugs at Conempo Cafe before putting the boys in bed around 8:00 PM. That wake up call to get to the bus stop by 6:30 would come early!

Up Next: Our Bus Arrived Too Early​

 

[disneyAndi14]

I really dislike the whole rope drop at MK. I feel so herded and it is like a stampede. I almost feel like Genie+ is the way to go at MK and miss the chaotic rope drop!
I am not a fan of the Speedway, mostly because of the smell, low seats and the feel of the car on the track, lol I can see how it would appeal to young boys!
We use to love the Wave for breakfast and dinner. We had some really good meals there.
I haven’t tried Steakhouse71 yet, I loved the grits at the Wave and they had the best breakfast buffet.

 

[cstorm65]

I really dislike the whole rope drop at MK. I feel so herded and it is like a stampede. I almost feel like Genie+ is the way to go at MK and miss the chaotic rope drop!
I am not a fan of the Speedway, mostly because of the smell, low seats and the feel of the car on the track, lol I can see how it would appeal to young boys!
We use to love the Wave for breakfast and dinner. We had some really good meals there.
I haven’t tried Steakhouse71 yet, I loved the grits at the Wave and they had the best breakfast buffet.

I feel like on this trip we only did rope drop here because it was convenient since we were at Bay Lake. I'll tell you on our trip this past summer (2022) we didn't do as many MK rope drops for this very reason. You can get so much done with Genie+ and by stacking them later in the day that you don't have to mess with the rope crop crowds.

Those grits were so good! I'm excited for Steakhouse 71, but definitely going to miss The Wave!

 

[MickeyReeds]

Love staying at BLT and walking to MK! When we were there in 21 with our grand kids, they always wanted to go swimming! They really had fun on the slide!

 

[cstorm65]

Love staying at BLT and walking to MK! When we were there in 21 with our grand kids, they always wanted to go swimming! They really had fun on the slide!

The pool at Disney hold great power over the kids! haha...so many times our say in the parks, "Can we just go back and swim!"

 

[cstorm65]

Day 11 Part 1 - Our Bus Arrived Too Early

We had a great night of sleep and were up and ready to go by 6:15. It was Animal Kingdom rope drop day. I think in today’s time I would just buy a Lightning Lane for FoP, but in 2021 there were no Lightning Lanes, so we had to get up.

We were at the bus stop by 6:30. Great views from the bus stop here at the Contemporary.

A bus came for us at 6:42 and we parked in a spot at 6:55 and we had something happen to us for the first time ever.

As we pulled into our parking spot to unload, a bus supervisor came to the door and got on and said, “Ok folks, you all are just a little early, we need to hold you here for a few minutes.” So, they made us sit on the bus until 6:58 when they said we could get off. The reasoning they gave us later was that they would not allow the bus drivers to let people get to security before 7 AM, so they had to hold us.

Anyways, this all meant we were literally the first people at Animal Kingdom. We did stop to grab this picture of the boys or we would have been first at a turnstile.

We ended up second at a turnstile, so not too bad at all!

Brooks was ready for the hot day with his “cool” headband.

After lining up at about 7:02, they opened the gates at 7:14 and we headed towards Flight of Passage. Here was the crowd at the first bridge where they stopped us.

At 7:32 they started walking us forward and began loading people into the queue for the ride. It was way more organized than Magic Kingdom and you have some awesome scenery to look at along the way.

They started operating the ride at 7:38 and it took us about 18 minutes until we were on the ride. All said and done we were walking out of Pandora a 8:04 and this was the line for Flight of Passage as we headed off towards Asia.

We passed the Tree of Life on our way to one of our favorites.

We made it to Expedition Everest by 8:12 and it was a walk on. The boys even wanted to ride again, so I took them again. April said she couldn’t handle it twice in that short amount of time, so she looked around in the gift shop while we rode again. Here are all the pics:

It was 8:30 at this point. Can you guess where we were heading next?

Up Next: We Almost Got Our Own Vehicle​

 

[cstorm65]

Day 11 Part 2 - We Almost Got Our Own Vehicle

We headed off on the walkway from Asia to Africa and arrived at Kilimanjaro Safari at 8:40 AM and we were on a ride vehicle in under 10 minutes!

I just tried to enjoy the safari and didn't take a ton of pictures, but I did get one of the scrims that were up at the Lion exhibit:

It was a great safari as is usually the case when you can get it on it pretty early in the morning! After getting back from our “trip” we headed over towards Dinoland. Braxton and I wanted to take in Dinosaur, while Brooks and April were going to go do Triceratop Spin.

It was about 9:20 and we walked onto Dinosaur. In fact, it was so un-crowded here that Braxton and I almost had our own ride vehicle.

Meanwhile, Brooks and April were enjoying a little time in Dino-Rama!

After finishing up in Dinoland the boys were in the mood to get wet, so we went over and took a ride on Kali River Rapids. I think the queue on this ride is really underrated. It is just as well done as a ride like Everest, but you don’t hear people talk about this queue line as often. Such great attention to detail though:

We waited about 18 minutes to get on the ride here and managed to not get totally soaked. I mean, this ride is fun, but it is pretty weak compared to Popeye & Bluto’s Barges at Universal Islands of Adventure. Now that river rapids ride is awesome!

The boys found a fountain to play in after the ride so they could get a little wetter!

It was about 10:30 at this point and I think we had accomplished pretty much all we wanted at Animal Kingdom. We did spend some time shopping and taking some photopass pics at the Tree of Life on our way out, so we didn’t leave until just after 11:00.

Up Next: We Finally Try the Bison Burger​

 

[DisneyLover83]

All caught up and have enjoyed reading about your adventures! Thanks for sharing.

 

[cstorm65]

All caught up and have enjoyed reading about your adventures! Thanks for sharing.

Glad you are enjoying! Thanks for reading along!!

 

[cstorm65]

Day 11 Part 3 - We Finally Try the Bison Burger

We grabbed a bus to Wilderness Lodge, which took about a 20 minute wait, because we wanted to get our first taste of the Bison Burger at Geyser Point that everyone had been talking about. We made it to Geyser Point by 11:50 and were able to get seated immediately!

Both April and I ordered the Bison Burger.

We both agreed it was pretty good, but honestly we didn’t think it was just spectacular. Certainly much better than burgers in the parks or at quick service places, so we would definitely eat it again, just not super awesome. I ordered my burger medium and felt it was a little over cooked. April’s was medium well and they both look the exact same inside.

Braxton ordered the adult turkey sandwich and he liked it. It was a big sandwich so he just ate half and wanted to take half, which he ate later this afternoon.

Brooks got the kids burger, which I forgot to get a picture of, but he liked it. He loves hamburger patty’s, but isn’t a huge fan of bread. So, I think he ate all of the burger patty and fries! Hey, it was something different than mac ‘n cheese!

We walked around Wilderness Lodge a little bit, since it is our DVC home resort, before heading back to Contemporary. I also complained to April about the travesty that the boat the goes between Wilderness Lodge, Contemporary, and Fort Wilderness has never come back after COVID. So dumb, it takes one boat driver and one boat to run that route and it makes for such a fun little resort tour!

So to get from Wilderness to Contemporary we had to take a boat to the Magic Kingdom and then we actually rode the monorail back just for fun. We got back to the room by about 1:30 and the boys were reading to head down and swim. To the pool we go:

The boys had some snacks after we were done swimming and we played putt putt and pool in the Bay Lake Tower courtyard for a little while. The boys loved this area!

We headed back to the room at about 4:00 and spent a little time resting…and checking out the Magic Kingdom view!

We really just wanted a nice slow afternoon and evening, so we decided to head over to Contempo Cafe to grab a bite to eat and April wanted to get some caricature drawings done of the boys for their rooms.

First at Contempo I had the burger…I don’t know why I had this after the bison burger for lunch. It wasn’t as good as that, but not bad for a quick service burger.

April had the meat pizza and we found out it may be the best thing on the menu here. It was really good!

Braxton got a cheese flatbread and Brooks got chicken nuggets. They both enjoyed those things while dipping them in obscene amounts of ranch dressing!

After dinner we went out by the shops where the caricature artist was set up and April got the boys all signed up. The guy’s name was Ty the Art Guy and he was awesome with the boys! He had such a great personality. You’ll see in one of the pics Braxton had brought all of his drawings and wanted to show them to the guy. Well, the guy was super nice about it and talked to Braxton about drawing and things like that the entire time.

It was a great experience and the boys love having these pics!

I think we grabbed maybe a dessert from the shop there that sells the really big cookies and stuff, I think its the shop called BVG (Buena Vista Gifts…I think!).

We headed back to the room and watched the fireworks from the balcony, which I didn’t take pictures of, but we did video a bit, so that’s on YouTube. It was a relaxing and easy day to get ready for a hard day of sleeping in tomorrow! Haha…come see what we get into next!

Up Next: Dad, Can We Eat Here Again?​

 

[disneyAndi14]

also complained to April about the travesty that the boat the goes between Wilderness Lodge, Contemporary, and Fort Wilderness has never come back after COVID. So dumb, it takes one boat driver and one boat to run that route and it makes for such a fun little resort tour!

Ugh! This really stinks, I stayed at WL in April this year and April last year and really wanted to use that boat transportation.
It made getting to Hoop at FW such a pain.
We love eating and drinking at Geyser Point. The brisket dip is delicious and the Huckleberry punch yum!
I love the pictures of your boys! What a fun idea and a wonderful memory for you and your boys as they grow up.

 

[cstorm65]

Ugh! This really stinks, I stayed at WL in April this year and April last year and really wanted to use that boat transportation.
It made getting to Hoop at FW such a pain.
We love eating and drinking at Geyser Point. The brisket dip is delicious and the Huckleberry punch yum!
I love the pictures of your boys! What a fun idea and a wonderful memory for you and your boys as they grow up.

The boat is so disappointing. Being able to take that boat from Wilderness Lodge to Contemporary and jump on the monorail to go to Poly or Grand Floridian is also so much easier than having to go to Magic Kingdom and go through security to get to the monorail.

 

[cstorm65]

Day 12 Part 1 - Dad, Can We Eat Here Again?

We had such a nice and relaxing day yesterday we thought we would try that again this morning! So, it was about 8:30 before any of us saw the light of day. We did tear ourselves out of bed because we had made a breakfast reservation for this morning at The Wave after our awesome dinner the other night. We headed over towards the main building for our 9:30 ADR.

We waited just a few minutes before we were seated….

…and we were seated at exactly the same table we had a couple of nights before. That made for a good laugh with the hostess!

The meal started off as any breakfast should:

Braxton’s meal photo is first and he had the American Breakfast. He ate everything on this plate, a full adult meal, except he traded the biscuit to Brooks in exchange for a Mickey waffle!

April tried the Sweet Potato Pancakes and she loved these! They were really good and the walnut butter they were served with was a big hit with her.

I got The Feast for my breakfast and it was excellent. Everything was good, especially the eggs benedict. Of course those cheesy grits that I fell in love with a couple of nights before at dinner were a part of this dish. Like I said that night, I’m not normally a grits fan, but these were so good!

Brooks got a plate of Mickey Waffles and they even gave him double bacon since he’s allergic to eggs. He loves bacon! I guess I forgot a picture of this though.

We finished up by 10:45 and headed back up to the room because it was time for a mid day swim!

We made it down to the pool by 11:15 and the boys swam away for the next couple of hours.

Let’s see if you can guess where we went that evening based on the title for the next update!

Up Next: That is a Big Hot Dog​

 

[starousse]

Totally agree with you on the bison burger. Thought it was just okay. Better than the QS in the park, but def not the best on property. We're going to be back at WL in August, so I plan to give it another shot.

 

[rdkeim]

I'm sure your boys loved the break with some slower park days. Great idea to build in some of those days during a Disney trip. I agree with the boat situation at WL! Last year we were staying at FW Campground and had a dining reservation at WL. What a pain it was to get there. I didn't realize the boat wasn't available - super disappointed! Hope they bring it back!

 

[cstorm65]

Totally agree with you on the bison burger. Thought it was just okay. Better than the QS in the park, but def not the best on property. We're going to be back at WL in August, so I plan to give it another shot.

Well, I guess it wasn't just me. I'm with you. It was good, just not all that!

I'm sure your boys loved the break with some slower park days. Great idea to build in some of those days during a Disney trip. I agree with the boat situation at WL! Last year we were staying at FW Campground and had a dining reservation at WL. What a pain it was to get there. I didn't realize the boat wasn't available - super disappointed! Hope they bring it back!

We like having those slower days at the end of the trip. It's one of the benefits of having longer trips for sure!

 

[cstorm65]

Day 12 Part 2 - That is a Big Hot Dog

We had a nice relaxing morning, a great breakfast, and some pool time and by about 3:00 we wanted to let Brooks get just a little rest so we could go to Magic Kingdom for a little bit that evening. So, Braxton and I went to our normal spot in the Contemporary lobby where he could draw!

After some drawing we loaded up and headed to the Magic Kingdom. We did go via the monorail this time. Even though it’s an easy walk, the monorail is still a pretty great way to arrive at the MK.

We made it over by about 5:00. So weird to see the train station covered up like this.

We got on to Main Street and the crowd was watching a cavalcade come down the street. We watched for a few minutes and then ducked into the Emporium to shop a bit.

After a little shopping we did a few photopass pics around the castle before we got all hot and sweaty!

Then, it was time for some dinner. When I walked up with this tray Braxton said, “Dad, that is a big hot dog!” He was right!

We did find a table to enjoy our food. Casey’s is pretty solid, especially for the boys. Brooks and I shared the footlong, and Braxton had the other chili cheese dog. They both loved it! April is not a big hot dog fan, but she loves those corn dog nuggets, so she was happy too!

As we were eating another cavalcade came by…Moana this time!

We finished up dinner and it was time for some rides…nevermind, it was time for more photopass pics!

Up Next: He Fell Asleep on Splash Mountain​