The British are Coming! An April '19 TR (Updated 09/03)

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

Hi everyone! Welcome to my first trip report – it’s going to be a rocky and wild ride so hold on to your hats and glasses as I figure out how to write one of these. Whilst this is my first trip report, we are Disney veterans - my parents visited WDW when they were kids and we finally got our own trip as a family of 4 in 2009 and we’ve been back almost yearly since then! Also, I'm posting this a tad bit late as I had exams and then time just flew by, I wrote notes though so I should remember everything!

Before I get in to it all though I should probably do some introductions! So, who are we?

Well, we are a family of four – my parents, myself, and my younger sister, and we are from Manchester in the UK (a bit of a trek to Disney, I know, but certainly worth it). I’ll give you some individual introductions so you can get to know us all!

ME!
My name is Helena and I am going into my third year of University studying Psychology (no, I haven’t quite mastered the ability to read minds yet). I love Disney, it’s my happy place and takes me away from the stress of assignments and exams so when my parents suggested another trip, of course I said an enthusiastic YES! (despite the fact my exams would’ve been only 3 weeks after our return eep).



Some stats:
Favourite Disney Park: Magic Kingdom
Favourite Resort: Polynesian (we’ve never stayed here but I just think it’s beautiful)
Favourite Disney Movie: Saving Mr Banks/Mulan
Favourite Disney Character: Stitch/Eeyore
Favourite Disney Song: Welcome (from Brother Bear)
Favourite Ride: Jungle Cruise/Spaceship Earth
Favourite Restaurant: Flying Fish
Favourite Show: Fantasmic!
Favourite Disney Snack: Chocolate covered pineapple (a new discovery on this trip)
Most Excited For: Pandora

EMILY
This is my younger sister Emily, she is currently in year 9 at high school and enjoying her last year before the hard work and big exams set in (GCSEs, a turbulent time). After a traumatic start to this year (she is now down one appendix) she was super excited to get away to Disney and spend the time annoying me…



Some stats:
Favourite Disney Park: Magic Kingdom
Favourite Resort: Animal Kingdom Lodge
Favourite Disney Movie: Princess and the Frog/Hercules
Favourite Disney Character: Winnie the Pooh
Favourite Disney Song: I Just Can’t Wait to be King
Favourite Ride: Mission Space /Star Tours
Favourite Restaurant: Teppan Edo
Favourite Show: Fantasmic!
Favourite Disney Snack: Mickey Ice Cream
Most Excited For: Pandora

So, this next picture is one of the whole family and is one of the only pictures of both my parents that I’ve been given permission to post. Savour the view, because from here on out you’re gonna be stuck with me and Emily .



Elaine
This is my mother, Elaine, (from here on out known as ‘mum’) and she is the planner of the family. Without her we would not have been able to get that sacred FoP FP or even wake up on time to get to all the early EMH – but luckily, she is the driving force behind the family making sure we get where we need to be and do what we want to do! Mum is the Chair of Governors at my old primary school, so she definitely deserves this Disney break to get away from it all!

Stat time:
Favourite Disney Park: Magic Kingdom
Favourite Resort: Coronado Springs (the first place we ever stayed so very sentimental)
Favourite Disney Movie: Moana
Favourite Disney Character: Mickey Mouse/Winnie the Pooh/Dopey
Favourite Disney Song: There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow
Favourite Ride: People Mover
Favourite Restaurant: Flying Fish/Hoop-De-Doo
Favourite Show: Mickey’s Philharmagic
Favourite Disney Snack: Funnel Cake
Most Excited For: Magic Kingdom on the first day!

Shaun
This is my father, Shaun, (from here on known as ‘dad’) and he and his wallet are the sole reason we get to go to Disney every year! Dad was not a Disney fan originally when we went in 2009 (he is really not a fan of DLP) but that trip to WDW converted him and now he’s just as Disney-crazed as all of us. I’m not completely sure what my dad does for work (every time he tries to explain it to me it just sounds like a bunch of complicated, technical words) but he has to work away in Europe a lot so he definitely deserves this trip to travel somewhere he wants to (and not for work) for once!

Stats:
Favourite Disney Park: Magic Kingdom
Favourite Resort: Grand Floridian
Favourite Disney Movie: Avengers: Infinity War
Favourite Disney Character: Donald Duck/Mickey Mouse
Favourite Disney Song: Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me)
Favourite Ride: Haunted Mansion
Favourite Restaurant: Flying Fish
Favourite Show: Fantasmic!
Favourite Disney Snack: Mickey Ice Cream
Most Excited For: Our first time staying at AKL!

So, this is all of us. We also have one other member of the family that we very sadly had to leave behind on this trip, despite her being the favourite child and definitely less annoying to travel with than us… Daisy!



I did ask her what her stats were but all she did was start spinning in excitement to go outside – she hasn’t really mastered answering questions yet but she’s still probably the smartest in the family.

When/Where
Now you know who we are it’s time to tell you the bit you were waiting for – the actual trip!

We did a 12 night stay from the 5th April – 17th April at Animal Kingdom Lodge – this was our first time staying at this hotel and we were staying Club Level . We usually stay at Saratoga Springs but they didn’t release the rooms to us early enough this year for us to book them (they hold them back for DVC before opening them up to us UK people – not sure if it’s the same for all you elsewhere) so we went for AKL – especially due to all the new stuff in AK this trip! We booked two rooms – me and Emily in one, mum and dad in the other (I think they were particularly happy about this, some child-free time!).

Now that you know who we are, when we went, and where we stayed let’s get on with the trip report so you can enjoy my terrible photography skills and mediocre story-telling.

Enjoy!

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

Chapters:

Travel Day - Part 1
Travel Day - Part 2

Day 1:
Sun Cream, Sun Cream and More Sun Cream!
Bears and Bills
Hoop-De, Hoop-De, Hoop-De-Doo!

Day 2:
Early Morning Foggy Adventures
Twinning with 626!
Under the Sea...
Dramatic Beginnings at HS
Dreaming With Mickey

Day 3:
Pandora
Hakuna Matata
Winning in Dinoland
Yak & Yeti

Quick Update (It's been a while)

Day 4:
A Lie-In?! At Disney?!
Thank the Phoenicians!
It's Raining Pineapples (Hallelujah)!

Day 5:
The Fairest of Them All
To Infinity and Beyond... Or Not

 

[Ela1972]

Following - yay I’m first

 

[Newsies]

Hi Helena! I'm here and excited to read more!

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

Travel Day - Part 1

The night before we flew out it was all a bit hectic as usual, with Emily going to shower the minute I decided to go have one too – a usual occurrence with the excuse being that ‘I’m older and so need less sleep’ (tell that to the number of naps I have). I had secretly bought some ears for us both, Winnie the Pooh themed for Emily and Stitch themed for myself. This led to a mini surprise for her as I displayed them on our travel pillows for her to find in the morning.



Time for bed but as most of you probably experience, I could not sleep at all! A 10pm bedtime ended up being 12:30am, which was certainly way too late for a 5:20am get up! This didn’t matter though because the adrenaline was pumping and I was too excited to be tired, so after shoving down my breakfast (coco pops of course), I was raring to go. Despite what the below picture suggests, I really was awake and excited, I promise!



My grandma arrived at 6:15 to pick us up and we left the house at 6:20 – a record for us, we usually have to factor in an extra 10 minutes to get out the house and into the car. We arrived at the airport at 7am and by 7:40am we had dropped our bags and were through security, the airport was pretty quiet, it’s why we like to fly on Sundays. Next came our favourite stop in the airport – the breakfast place that does overpriced sausage sandwiches! It was becoming a family tradition, along with my dad complaining about the price but still insisting that we eat there. I won’t bore you with what we ate but don’t worry, it all contained sausages. It was at this point we (i.e. mum) realised that we (mum) hadn’t sent a birthday card to our family friend (this never usually happens, holiday-brain had just set in) and this led to me frantically creating a card online to be posted out to her, hopefully the rest of the holiday wouldn’t be this stressful and panicked!

Finally, we boarded the plane, we flew with Virgin Atlantic and sat in Premium Economy – the extra seat and leg room is definitely worth the price. I watched The Favourite and then attempted to get some sleep. We took sandwiches with us so we could avoid the plane food so that was something to look forward to on the flight.



We touched down at 1:59pm EST and were finally in Florida! The first ride of the holiday was next – the Monorail (if you’ve ever seen the monorail episode of The Simpsons, we always sing the beginning of the song from it whenever we see a monorail – yes, this does include the ones at Disney (luckily we weren’t staying at a monorail resort)). We had a slight issue with check-in for DME, it somehow hadn’t got mine and Em’s names on the reservation due to us having booked two rooms, we managed to get it sorted though and finally we were off to AKL! …or so we thought…

Emily started to feel super ill whilst we were on DME and so she and my mum got off at CSR to get her some fresh air, my dad and I continued on. When we arrived there was a CM waiting for us with a sign with our names on – we were a little late so I think he had been waiting for a bit – he was very nice and took us up to the club level lounge to get checked in. They offered us a drink and we were given a welcome pack with some type of nuts and welcome letter.

Once we were done, we texted mum and Emily the room number and met them there – they told us that the concierge at CSR kindly gave them a taxi voucher as Emily wasn’t feeling well so they didn’t have to pay to get back.

The room was gorgeous, the decoration was amazing, every time I looked, I could see something new, the view from the balcony was brilliant too. We had a Savannah view room.


Luckily (or unluckily for my parents) we had adjoining rooms. In their room they had two king sized beds, and in ours we had one king sized bed and one bunk bed (which Emily enthusiastically slept in). The rooms were great, we all really liked them, although my dad said the beds were slightly too high for him and the overall storage was a bit stingy.

I've run out of room for pictures so will split this into two parts

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

Travel Day - Part 2

Having a savanna room was great - it was a lot of fun to wake up each day and see which animals were wandering around outside. We had a couple of friends hanging around when we first arrived.



My parents' wedding anniversary (18 years!) was close to when we went away so they obviously let Disney know about this and they got a special note and some chocolate left for them in the room!



After we had got unpacked and settled, we decided to do a bit of exploring. We went back up to the lounge as Emily and mum had still not seen it, and decided to try some of the food on offer. I forgot to get pictures of this (sorry!) but it was all delicious, especially the butter chicken they had. They offered different types of hummus with veg and bread for dipping, and also mini corndogs – there was loads more on offer too, these were just some of our highlights. The lounge as a whole was very relaxing and they play Disney movies on the tv most of the day. My dad was excited about the free alcohol they offered and was determined to get his money’s worth.

After having a couple of snacks we decided to explore the hotel more. There’s no doubting that the place is stunning and so intricately themed, and being able to view the animals was great too.



We spent most of the evening exploring the hotel and this led us to the quick service. Still feeling slightly peckish we decided to grab some chicken nuggets for us all and pick up our resort mugs.

When we arrived back at our room we found that we had received a turn down service – all our beds were untucked, Ghiradelli’s chocolate on the pillows and a piece of paper with our schedule for the next day was put on the bed. By the end of the trip we had collected a whole bag full of chocolate, which my sister promptly ate whilst I was back at university.



We ate our food pretty quickly and were all in bed and asleep by 8pm, ready to start our first day!

 

[Ela1972]

Really enjoying this Helena! It’s like I’m there with you

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

Following - yay I’m first

Hi Helena! I'm here and excited to read more!

Thanks for following along! Hope you enjoy

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

Really enjoying this Helena! It’s like I’m there with you

If anyone is curious/confused this is my mum Yes, the mysterious Elaine that you now know all about is gracing us with her presence

 

[Newsies]

Really great start so far! KC at DAKL looks amazing so far, you guys were really pampered by the Kilimanjaro Cast on check-in day! We've done King Kamehameha at the Poly before, but I really want to try Kilimanjaro Club. Also, the rooms look gorgeous!

Can't wait to hear about your first day at the parks!

 

[sue_88]

Great reporting so far!
I stayed at that resort a long time ago and need to go back for a visit.
I'm looking forward to reading more about your holiday xx

 

[bizzybee3]

Following along! Helena, how was the change in weather (temperature) for everyone (was it a hot/humid shock when you arrived)?

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

Really great start so far! KC at DAKL looks amazing so far, you guys were really pampered by the Kilimanjaro Cast on check-in day! We've done King Kamehameha at the Poly before, but I really want to try Kilimanjaro Club. Also, the rooms look gorgeous!

Can't wait to hear about your first day at the parks!

Thank you! KC was amazing, it was really convenient having all the snacks and drinks right there and meant we weren't constantly buying drinks and snacks for the room. How was it at the Poly? I love the theming there!

Great reporting so far!
I stayed at that resort a long time ago and need to go back for a visit.
I'm looking forward to reading more about your holiday xx

Thank you! It's a really nice resort, there's so much to look at and explore, love the proximity to AK too.

Following along! Helena, how was the change in weather (temperature) for everyone (was it a hot/humid shock when you arrived)?

It wasn't too bad really, we like to go around Easter time as it is a lot cooler than summer! The humidity is the first thing you notice when you get off the plane though and we were all ready to get out of our travel clothes and into shorts and t-shirts ASAP. It's definitely a big change from the weather at home though haha.

 

[Ela1972]

Following along! Helena, how was the change in weather (temperature) for everyone (was it a hot/humid shock when you arrived)?

Hi, personally I really like the weather at Easter time and the humidity. I have joint problems (rheumatoid arthritis) and it surprising how within 24 hours of being in my happy place it seems much better.
We don’t tend to stay out in the sun for excessive periods of time and we go back to the hotel around 1pm for an afternoon nap . Even the girls have a sleep now - we have them well trained - Elaine (Helena’s mum)!

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

DAY 1 - Sun Cream, Sun Cream and More Sun Cream!

As always happens on the first day of being on vacation, we were all up at the crack of dawn – 6:05am to be precise. Mum was super happy about having some company in the mornings as she is usually the one up hours before anyone else, although she did know that it wouldn’t be long-lasting haha. We were heading to Magic Kingdom that day and it only opened at 9am so we took our time getting ready, it also allowed for extra time to smother ourselves in sun cream – we burn like bread left in a toaster so it was factor 50 for everyone

On all our previous trips I have varied on bags. On some I've hated the idea of a bag and just used my pockets, others I have used a small cross-body bag, but on this trip I decided to go with a backpack that I got from Primark and was Stitch-themed. A backpack seemed the way to go, it meant I could carry water around and wasn't stuck with an annoying bag getting in the way all the time. Here's a picture of what I usually take in my bag with me for anyone who is curious:

Looking at this picture has made me remember! The days coming up to this trip I was super ill, I had one of the worst colds I have had in a while and of course it had to be just before the trip... I was recovering at this point but my bag still looked like a pharmacy The Machu Picchu thing is a water bottle holder - I took it with me in case anyone wanted to carry their own water bottle - it didn't end up getting used and most water bottles ended up in my bag

By the time we were ready it was only 7am so we decided to head up to the lounge and grab some breakfast. There was no one in the lounge when we arrived so we had the whole spread of food to ourselves! Similarly the lobby was empty (except for the one man enjoying his morning) so I was able to take a quick picture and really admire the decoration.


I decided to go for a bagel with cream cheese (again, holiday-brain had kicked in so I didn’t think to put the cream cheese on the side of the plate and slice the bagel so I could cover it all, instead I just stuck it in the hole – mum just silently judged my stupidity). I also got some fresh fruit and a little muffin, along with jungle juice and a coffee to drink. It was all delicious and very filling, so I felt ready to start the day. Mum and dad got similar things to eat but Emily doesn’t really like to eat breakfast so she forced down a strawberry and that was it for her.



Did I mention that Emily and I were wearing matching outfits? The top and shorts were both from Primark, they always have a good Disney range. The ears made their first appearance too!


Dad had the app on his phone with all the bus times on it and it said a bus was arriving at 7:48am, so off we went on the brief walk to the bus stop. The bus journey was rather uneventful, other than us being super excited to get to the park, and 15 minutes later we had arrived. We were still quite early so we took the opportunity to get some pictures in front of the train station before have a leisurely walk down Main Street.


We queued up at the entrance to Liberty Square and the CM at the entrance entertained us all with some super interesting trivia about all our favourite characters. Did you know that the backgrounds in the movie Lilo & Stitch were hand-drawn?

The time flew by and next thing we knew we were at the entrance to BTMR – this is a favourite for me, and has always been, dad always likes to bring up the memory of me as a little 3-year-old at DLP laughing the entire way round the ride. 17 years later my reaction was pretty much the same, especially as dad tried to film some of the ride, nearly dropping his phone multiple times.

This is a perfect example of my incredible photography skills... You can hire me for weddings, funerals, birthdays etc. etc.

After BTMR we decided to go on PoC as it was a walk on, and it meant we didn’t have to queue up for it later – our plan for the day was to do all of Adventureland/Fronteirland/Liberty Square and it was pretty quiet around this area so early in the morning. Apparently Pirates takes pictures now! As you can probably tell, we did not realise this...


Another family tradition of ours is to get a picture on the wall by the PoC toilets, we've done this every year we've been at WDW.

Now, I know some of you probably want to see some pictures from that first trip way back in 2009 to compare, and (with special thanks to my dad who found them for me) here they are!

As you can see, I was extremely fashionable at age 9 and great at posing, Emily's posing skills were also pretty great - I'm surprised we aren't models by now!

Come back for part 2 where some roaming bears will make a surprise appearance!

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

Day 1 - Bears and Bills

After PoC we decided to hop on the Magic Carpets, we usually miss this but we had time so thought ‘why not?’, it was 9:44am at this point and we were on our third ride. Next was a favourite for the family, the Tiki Room! It’s a great sit-down and honestly quite funny, we do really enjoy it and sing the song constantly. 'In the tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room...'

At this point our FP kicked in and the first was for BTMR (again! We do really love it!) so we headed on over there and my dad kept his phone firmly in his pocket this time. After this we headed over to my dad’s favourite activity – the shooting range, mum sat out of this one, I like to imagine that I’m a good aim but I’m pretty sure I missed more than I hit. Dad, on the other hand, hit every target on the first attempt.

Emily looks like an expert here!

At this point we were just waiting for Pecos Bills to open, we like to eat early, especially after having breakfast what felt like years ago, so we just wandered through some shops and watched people get soaked on Splash for a bit. I knew I wanted to buy one of those mini backpacks so did some window shopping of the choices, there were so many options it was hard to pick (*Spoiler Alert* I did end up choosing one towards the end of the trip and it has been one of the best purchases I've ever made - I use it all the time!). As we were wandering around we also noticed some of the bears roaming with us and so definitely asked for a photo opportunity!


It was at this point that we heard the Pecos Bills bells – literal music to our hungry ears – and we hurried over to get some food. There also seemed to be a couple of guests also looking to get their lunch, Disney Ducks gotta eat too!

Mum and Emily got burgers and they came with tortilla chips, they rated them as 7/10 – decent but just average park burgers. Dad got the lettuce cups and rated them 7/10 – a good low carb option but difficult to eat, adding jalapeños gave it the extra kick it needed. I got the tacos (the second picture is from after I added loads of toppings to them from the toppings bar) and rated these 5/10 – the beef was really good, the chicken wasn’t great, and the cauliflower was good and spicy but I had filled myself up on the other two and so couldn’t finish it.


We finished eating just in time for our HM FP – the perfect ride to allow our lunch to settle. The MB scanner for the FP line made ghostly noises when we scanned them, which added a fun effect to the theme. I really like how Disney goes above and beyond on all the little details like these. Of course we had to say hello to Madame Leota on our way in to the ride, it’s good luck. I didn't manage to get the picture with her eyes open though

After joining the 999 happy haunts for their party it was time for out next FP – SM! This is again another one of our favourites but mum hates it – she screams on every dip and would much rather sit it out, but we wouldn’t allow that.

Also, whilst we’re here, you may see ‘Keith’ make an appearance throughout this TR. Who is Keith? I hear you ask… Well, Keith is the pink bunny keyring that Emily decided would join us on every day of the trip and had to include in (almost) every picture. It was slightly annoying but did lead to some great photos like the Splash one.

At this point it was getting quite hot and we were tired so we decided to head out and back to the hotel. On the way out we managed to hit the parade when we left the shops next to the fire station (a common occurrence during this trip), so stopped to watch it – I mean, we didn’t have a choice but it was fun to watch.

We made it back to the bus stop at 12:44pm and again the bus ride was uneventful (this may be foreshadowing a future bus ride...).

It was a pretty good morning, 8 'rides' including the tiki room and the shooting range and lunch - all before 12pm! We were definitely ready for a nap now.

 

[Newsies]

Looks like an amazing morning at MK! Love the photos in front of the PotC toilets and with the country bears!

Can't wait to see "Keith" reappear in other photos! We tried to do that one year, and it failed miserably, so good on Emily for being persistent with it!

Excited for more!

 

[Newsies]

How was it at the Poly? I love the theming there!

We LOVE the Poly! It's our DVC Home. The location absolutely can't be beat, and the dining options are also great. I really thought I would get tired of the retro-Hawaiian kitsch really quickly, but it hasn't worn off on me yet! My only complaints are that I wish the Grand Ceremonial House had more shopping options, and I wish Captain Cooks had a bakery counter like the Contempo Cafe does! Some of the longhouses are pretty far from the GCH, but the farthest ones are closer to the TTC-- so it's easy to hop on and off the monorail there instead!

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

Looks like an amazing morning at MK! Love the photos in front of the PotC toilets and with the country bears!

Can't wait to see "Keith" reappear in other photos! We tried to do that one year, and it failed miserably, so good on Emily for being persistent with it!

Excited for more!

Thank you! We were quite surprised to see the country bears, in fact we didn't even notice them until they came up to us haha. Emily is super happy that you are excited to see Keith, we found him a bit annoying when he was in every picture so she really appreciates someone understanding what she was trying to do

We LOVE the Poly! It's our DVC Home. The location absolutely can't be beat, and the dining options are also great. I really thought I would get tired of the retro-Hawaiian kitsch really quickly, but it hasn't worn off on me yet! My only complaints are that I wish the Grand Ceremonial House had more shopping options, and I wish Captain Cooks had a bakery counter like the Contempo Cafe does! Some of the longhouses are pretty far from the GCH, but the farthest ones are closer to the TTC-- so it's easy to hop on and off the monorail there instead!

That sounds really nice, the location is definitely a highlight of the resort. I really love the theme, but that might just be because I love Lilo & Stitch haha! Ooo the bakery is something we like to have if possible though, breakfast muffins all the way haha, but it's not the be-all and end-all. Might try convince my family to stay here at some point but I have a feeling the answer might be that I'm old enough now to go alone Thank you for your reply!

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

Day 1 - Hoop-De, Hoop-De, Hoop-De-Doo!

Ok, so before we begin I found a couple of photos that I completely forgot to put in earlier parts of this day and it includes a very important picture!

Our first look at the castle when we arrived! Such a magical moment and I totally forgot to include it. As we had arrived early we could get a bunch of photos of and in front of the castle, so it really made that first morning feel special.

As well as this, we also got a super cute picture in front of the Splash sign and Keith makes a reappearance! If Emily knew I had forgotten to include this she would not be happy...


Anyway, back to the rest of the day...

When we arrived back at the hotel the first thing we did was grab some snacks from the lounge to take back to the room – there was a range of sweet and savoury snacks. They ranged from hummus and vegetables, bread sticks and crackers, cookies and candy etc. Emily hoarded cookies. We also grabbed some sodas and waters to take back to the room. There were no animal friends hanging around outside our room today, but that was ok because it was one of our favourite times – nap time! We were all pretty exhausted so a nap in the air conditioned room was definitely welcomed.

All was well and peaceful until we heard the screeching sound of the phone – I ignored ours, answering the phone was not something I enjoyed, I probably should have answered though to tell them we were in the room because a few minutes later there was a knock on the door for the room inspection. Now, we do understand that this is something that needs to be done but they were very good at scheduling the inspections during our naps haha!

Since we were up we thought we might as well start getting ready for the evening. We were going to Hoop-De-Doo!



It’s kinda become a family tradition for us and we really enjoy all the stupid jokes, despite them being the same each year. Also, the fried chicken is incredible there and definitely a highlight. Nothing beats my favourite part of the meal though… CORNBREAD! It’s honestly the best thing I have ever eaten, it’s a mix of the best two things in the world – cake and bread – I’m so sad that they don’t have it over here in the UK (although mum says she’s gonna have a go at making some for me). I always forget to take a bag with me so I can smuggle one of the loaves back to the hotel.


This is also the only picture I took of the food, just to really send home the idea that cornbread is the best thing to ever exist!

After that passionate speech on cornbread, I should probably tell you more about the actual show. It is honestly a must-do for us, a lot of fun, some audience participation but not too much, the food is great and all-you-can-eat. We didn’t have the best table but could still see pretty well.

We were also right next to the kitchen, which is a slightly noisy area and extremely high traffic! This did lead to a couple of cute moments with the cast of the show though, a couple of them came to talk to us and commented on Emily's flower crown (another of her statement pieces)
At the end, we got the internal bus back to the front of Fort Wilderness and then ordered a Lyft back to AKL – at this point it was pouring down outside and was thundering and lightning – pretty spooky…

When we got back to AKL, I think you can guess where our first stop was – the lounge to get some snacks! As it was quite late they had a lot of desserts out like Mickey rice-krispie cakes, some mousses and a range of other animal-themed cakes. I really should have taken pictures of these but I felt a bit awkward taking pictures of the table with all the food led out with other people around trying to get food. Downstairs in the lobby the CMs were playing some traditional music on some drums and dancing along, some of the guests were joining in too, it looked like a lot of fun and was cool to see some traditional dances.

After a while of watching the dancing and snacking we decided to head back to the room and get some sleep, it was going to be another early morning tomorrow. Again, we had received the turn-down service, which was really nice and meant more chocolate!


We all went straight to bed in excitement for another park day!