Trip Report - 8/29 to 9/1 - Last Minute Booking and Quick Trip (incl. MNSSHP!)

JEH33

Earning My Ears
Joined
Oct 27, 2017
Hi everyone! This is my first trip report, hopefully it's helpful to someone! This was a quick trip for us, our shortest Disney trip yet, but we visited all 4 parks, went to the MNSSHP and even had some pool time at Yacht Club. I booked this trip less than three weeks before we left, so it was fairly last minute. It sounds like a whirlwind, but it was great! I tried to keep this as short as possible, but feel free to ask any questions!

Wednesday, August 29th: Arrive, Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. We landed in Orlando at 8:15 a.m. (originally scheduled to land at 8:40 - Jet Blue rocks!). We started our morning at 3:45 a.m. to get to the airport, but we were full of excitement so we had plenty of energy. By the time we walked down to the Magical Express and pulled out of the airport, it was about 9:30 (we walked right on the bus around 8:40).

YC was the first stop, and when we arrived, we hopped off the ME and dropped our bags with the Bell Hop. We didn't have to wait long before the Animal Kingdom bus pulled up to the YC bus stop. We were off the bus and walking into Animal Kingdom by 10:40 - yes!

First up, Fast Passes to Expedition Everest. We also rode Kali River Rapids (5 minute wait) and Rafiki's planet watch train (no line) before lunch. We had lunch at Satu'li Canteen and it was the best quick service we've had in the parks, the kids loved it as well. After lunch we went on Kilimanjaro Safaris (no line) and Na'vi River Journey (Fast Passes). We decided it was time to leave at this point because there were threatening thunder clouds moving in, and we had a 3:00 appointment at the barber in Magic Kingdom - back to the buses!

We arrived at MK just after 2:30 and headed right to the barber shop. My husband and son were seated and their hair was cut fairly quickly (overall, I didn't think this was worth the price, my son's cut was not good at all - but I am glad we had the experience). From there, we hit Starbucks to try the poison apple cupcake (disappointing, too sweet). It started to rain lightly, so we grabbed a table with an umbrella right outside the Plaza to people watch, and also so I could check for FPs. We were able to snag a FP for Buzz Lightyear, then ride the People Mover and the Tomorrowland Speedway before getting a FP for Haunted Mansion. Next up was Thunder Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean. At this point, we were exhausted, so we took the train from Frontierland back to the entrance, got back on the bus, and back to the hotel.

We grabbed our bags from the Bell Hop and went right up to our room (which ended up being ready at 10:18 a.m., impressive!). The room was on the fourth floor had a fabulous view of the lighthouse and dock - even better, we could see the fireworks from Epcot at night. We showered, dressed for dinner, and decided to grab appetizers at the Ale & Compass Lounge (what a fabulous place to eat - no reservation required in the lounge, and the full menu is available). The kids' macaroon dessert was my favorite food at Disney - also, fantastic service. I had booked the California Grill for 8:50 that night (thank you Disney Touring Plans ADR finder), but our youngest fell asleep at Ale & Compass by 8:00, so the Contemporary was out. There was a short line at Beaches & Cream, so we grabbed a Kitchen Sink sundae, and brought it up to the room to eat it on the balcony and watch the Epcot fireworks (kids fell asleep immediately and missed the fireworks :)!).

Thursday, August 30th: Hollywood Studios and Epcot. I had FPs for Alien Saucers, Tower of Terror and Rock n' Roller Coaster, so the plan was to arrive for EMH by 7:30 a.m. and head right to Slinky Dog Dash. We had breakfast at the Marketplace in YC (Mickey waffles!), and we got on the boat to DHS by 7:20ish. By the time we got to Slinky Dog Dash (7:45ish), the line was about 25 minutes long already. We rode it once (it was awesome!), and by that time, the line was over 50 minutes. From there, we rode Alien Saucers (no line) and Toy Story Mania (no line), and we were walking out of Toy Story land just after 9:00, with a huge line of people pouring in. We got over to Rock n' Roller Coaster, which we rode 3 times with little to no wait before the line was over 30 minutes, and Tower of Terror (one time with a fast pass, but there was no line). We rode on Star Tours and then decided it was very hot and we could use some pool time. We were leaving DHS by 10:45 am and back to the hotel and in our bathing suits by 11:30. Unfortunately, by that point, it was raining and the pool had been closed due to lightening, so we headed back to the Ale & Compass Lounge for lunch - once again, amazing food and service. Soon after, the rain cleared and we were in the pool for a swim. It was pretty crowded, so we went down the slide a few times, swam around the lazy river, and decided a nap would be a good idea before Epcot!

We took the boat to Epcot around 4:30. We rode Soarin', Nemo, Spaceship Earth, then walked to the Food and Wine Festival. We had a great time at F&W - we stopped in Italy, France, America and Japan - all great. My almost 9 year old son loved it - even with the crowd, the lines were very short. We left Epcot by 8:30 and watched the fireworks from our balcony again.

Friday, August 31st: MNSSHP! Our last full day we had breakfast at Cape May Cafe (some of the characters had new outfits from when we saw them last year, but the restaurant also seemed to have cut back the breakfast a little - for example, no sprinkles for the waffles..boo). We then headed for the pool, which quickly became crowded. We tried moving to the back of the pirate ship where the small water slides are located, and that was pretty good (except there are no chairs). We went back to the main pool and no sooner settled in with our poolside beverages when the pool was closed due to lightening in the area. At that time, around 12:30, headed back to the room for a nap.

We were back at the bus stop around 3:45 pm for the party, arriving at MK about 4:30 (the bus took more than 20 minutes to arrive at YC). We rode space mountain twice (FPs), then headed to Be Our Guest for a 5:20 reservation. It was a very welcome break from the heat and we really enjoyed the meal (though the price was hefty, and I agree with others who have said that their meal was way too salty). We saw the Beast and left shortly after 6:30, at which point we noticed CMs were checking wrist bands. We buzzed through the Little Mermaid with no wait, then waited about 25 minutes to ride 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. From there, we went on It's a Small World, trick or treating, walking by Haunted Mansion (posted a 13 minute wait (haha) but looked like a zoo so we skipped it), more trick or treating, then Thunder Mountain! Splash Mountain was a 50 minute wait at this point, so we decided to wait, but it was just past 8:45, so we found a place to watch the parade. The parade was extremely crowded as people have said - we were lucky to find a spot where the kids could see.

After the parade, we rode Pirates of the Caribbean, then grabbed a snack (the grim grinning ghost dessert - cute but not that great tasting- and a turkey leg) and found a place to watch the fireworks. I thought the kids would be done by the end of the fireworks, but they wanted to ride Thunder Mountain again, so we headed back into Frontierland. There was no line at Thunder Mountain at this point, so we rode it 4 or 5 times in a row (exiting, then walking all the way back through the line). Around 11:30 we headed to Splash Mountain, where there was also no line, and we were able to ride it 4 times (three times in a row without even getting out of the log)! By the time we were done, there were no other guests in Frontierland, and the midnight show was playing in front of the castle. It was an awesome atmosphere walking through the park virtually just us, with only the staff doing their final sweep behind us! There was still quite a crowd in front of the castle, but the show had ended by the time we made our way there. We were able to exit and board a bus pretty quickly, and back to the hotel just before 1:00 am. As you can tell, we didn't even attempt a character meet and greet, the kids preferred the rides.

Saturday, September 1st: Bon Voyage. We had the Bon Voyage breakfast at the Boardwalk which was great! From there, we did some shopping, checked out the Boardwalk hotel lobby, then took the boat back to YC and boarded the ME to go home.
 

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