Winging it with No Dinning Plan! A Feb. Trip Report

Pretty sure you’re in DL right now, I hope you guys are having a blast!

She is SOOOO going to be trouble as a teen!

::yes::

One day, maybe...

Same! It’s my dream resort.

I love that you let the girls decide how to end the day. I’m seriously trying to let go on the planning bit a bit. It’s much harder than I thought.

Glad y’all enjoyed the beignets. I’ve had them from Cafe DuMonde in New Orleans and I’m always afraid I won’t any others won’t live up to those; they definitely need to be warm!

Glad you guys had such fun at trader Sam’s too. The slomo video was adorable!
 
I’m sorry I got behind but have really enjoyed catching up. Your report is so fun. I’m so relived Morgan was feeding better. Gwen is so full of sass it’s just too cute. I’ve enjoyed all the little extras y’all have done. It’s so hard not to rush around. I had a more laid back approach in February since we had done so much in May. I’m jealous you had pool time. The pool closed at 7 the entire time we were there.

I hope your Disneyland trip was great and hope to hear about it too.
 
Hello Everyone!!!!

We are back from Disneyland & California! We had a great time, of course it wasn't enough time but we made the best of the time. I will def do a trip report on it, but I am a one trip report at a time kind of gal, so I am trying to write everything down so, when I do start it I still have all the good details!

I will share, that the big reveal didn't go quiet as planned. I left there easter baskets out for them to find when we came back from Morgan's play.
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The animals flipped inside out and turned into neck pillows!

Well... Morgan was tired from the play, it was her first speaking role, and she is shy by nature, so, she didn't sleep well the night before.
Here is a very short video from the reveal.... Gwen is clearly super excitied and well, Morgan is not...

IMG_1821

Right after that...... Morgan cried.... I knew she would be nervous about the flight and sure enough she cried and said she didn't want to go. Thankfully, I had gotten the girls that guidebook. Morgan went up to her room and started readying the book and started to settle into the idea.

It was a bumpy start but Ahe did great! And she had a great time. Just one photo from the trip, we actually got a nice photo in front of the castle...
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I hope to get another post in today as well, we are doing laundry, laundry and more laundry today! Woo Hoo!!! So, stay tuned!


I am beginning to devour trip reports to help plan for our trip, and I absolutely love reading yours. Your kids are the same age as mine so it's fun to see how you guys go about things. The Tinkerbell gifts, the lock screen with your daily plans and the meal breakdown is all genius! Looking forward to hearing more! ❤❤❤
:welcome:Welcome!!! I think the first trip report I read was someone who had kids around the age of the girls. I feel like it is a great way to get a real feel for what can be done in a day. Especially with kids. Glad you are here!

I will be thinking about you all on Wednesday night - can't wait to hear the details about how the reveal goes ::yes:: And I hope you plan to do a DL TR!
Sigh... see above... I will def be doing a trip report. I really want to start it now, but I don't think I can do two at the same time. Plus that will help me drag out till out next trip which looks like won't be till March of next year.

The Pirate Adventure sounds like it was a nice, new thing to do in Adventureland. I remember reading that if you complete 3 of the tasks you get a Pirates Fastpass, but I'm not sure if that's still applicable!
We will have to test that out next time. Morgan did enjoy doing it. Although Gwen doesn't like Pirates... Sigh.

Trader Sam's for an easy going dinner sounds like a great idea. My family is staying at the Poly for 1 night next month and that info about being able to order from Capt. Cook's could be really useful.
Def do it! It was really nice, plus the kids can run around a bit. They don't have to be quiet so well behaved. There is the bar for the pool there, so people are walking up in bathing suits. So VERY relaxed. In my oppion a perfect choice for a family with kids.

Wow, what a fantastic trip! Always nice to try something a little different. And I love the Tinkerbell gifts at the beginning of your trip! Such a great idea :)
Thanks. I have a love hate relationship with the Tinkerbell Gifts. They are getting harder and harder to do! the first time the girls were little and a lot of it was princess dresses from Target. But they are too big for that now.

Expensive taste! I think you are the one who is going to be in trouble!
Most def!

Very strange since the cups are a big part of the fun. Odd they couldn't use the dishwasher in one of the other 3 restaurants in the resort!
It was strange. I was wondering if they were serving drinks in Ohana in plastic cups as well.

What a great idea. I think when we did Sam's we just ordered apps to share. Casey would have been much happier with something from Captain Cooks
At least Casey has a bigger palate than Gwen. Gwen is chicken nuggets all the way..

Love the Slo Mo... Excellent trip report so far!
Thanks!!!

Pretty sure you’re in DL right now, I hope you guys are having a blast!
Thanks! We def did have a good time.

I love that you let the girls decide how to end the day. I’m seriously trying to let go on the planning bit a bit. It’s much harder than I thought.
The trick is to let them get the choice when you are ok with either or whatever they say. You have to be super strategic about it!

Glad y’all enjoyed the beignets. I’ve had them from Cafe DuMonde in New Orleans and I’m always afraid I won’t any others won’t live up to those; they definitely need to be warm!
They probably aren't nearly as good. But I don't have anything to compare them to. It did look like they were frozen and they threw them in the fryer. I would assume they are freshly made and fried at Cafe DuMonde.

’m sorry I got behind but have really enjoyed catching up. Your report is so fun. I’m so relived Morgan was feeding better. Gwen is so full of sass it’s just too cute. I’ve enjoyed all the little extras y’all have done. It’s so hard not to rush around. I had a more laid back approach in February since we had done so much in May. I’m jealous you had pool time. The pool closed at 7 the entire time we were there.
We def were glad Morgan was feeling better too! And she was fine here on out. I think the kind of "lazy" day we had helped too. Oh, Gwen has more sass to come! It def helped to be a little more laid back, since we had been not that long ago. The pool being open later was nice. It was open earlier in September which was nice to get a swim in on a lazy morning, where in Feb, it opened later.
 
Welcome back! Glad to hear the trip went well, despite Morgan's reaction to it. Poor thing I'm sure that was a long day for her. And Gwen of course continues to prove she and Casey may have been separated at birth.
 


The animals flipped inside out and turned into neck pillows!
Cool!

Gwen is clearly super excitied and well, Morgan is not...
Seems that Gwen was excited enough for both of them! :laughing: I'm glad Morgan came around too - sounds like she'd had a stressful day. I think all stressful days should end with a trip reveal, don't you?! :rotfl: That would make my life far less stressful :rotfl2:

Just one photo from the trip, we actually got a nice photo in front of the castle...
Beautiful family shot. I'm anxious to read your TR - but completely understand your "one TR at a time" rule - since I can hardly handle my one TR at a time, I'd do the same :laughing:
 
Welcome home! Sad that Morgan had such a rough intro to the idea of your trip, but I'm glad everything worked out and you all had fun! I enjoyed seeing some of your photos on FB while you were there. Looking forward to hearing all about it! :)
 
Day Two: Animals, Piggyback Rides, and how many rides on Primevil Whirl?!?!

I had told myself going into this trip, that I wouldn't stress to to much on getting to the park at a certain time. And this morning was the first test of that! We were headed to Animal Kingdom today and there as Extra Magic Hours this morning. I had said that if we wanted to do the Nav'i River Journey we would need to be there AT 8:00 am... Well, that didn't happen... But it was ok.

We woke up around 6:50.


Here is our fastness schedule for the day. When I was making our fast passes, I was glad I could make a Flight of Passage Fast Pass so early in the week but of course it had to be fairly late in the day. Which meant we had to make it till then! Would we make it?

Everybody slowly got up and dressed for the day. The girls checked out the gifts from Tinkerbell for the day.

I had ordered a bunch of pins off of amazon before our September trip. I have been dolling out a few on the September trip, Christmas, this trip and this Disneyland trip. It has been perfect. They weren't the best ones, but the girls have loved trading with CM. And I ordered decals for the magic bands. Just small little ones, I wasn't ready to commit to the full decal ones.

We headed out of the room around 8:15.

We had seen some Brazilian tour groups yesterday, and Gwen wanted to be the tour guide for us this morning...

Once we got to the bus stop, this was the sign


Only a couple minute wait! Sweet! Well, it did change, but we ended up with a bus to Animal Kingdom at 8:26. Score! We got seats in the back, and the bus headed over to Riverside to pick up folks there. There was maybe a handful of families at FQ but when we got to Riverside there was a full line of folks waiting! It was the first time that I was glad we decided to try FQ over Riverside!


I grabbed a picture of our newly decaled magic bands while on the bus.

The ride over was uneventful otherwise and we were at the park by 8:50. There was a lot of open security tables, so we thankfully breezed through fast. And were able to get past the turnstile and into the park at 8:55! Sweet, we made it for EMH! It's counts, right? !? No?

We passed over Pandora, since it was so late already. I think I checked the app to see what the wait was and it was already too long. We just headed towards the back of the park for our safari fast pass.


We stopped for a picture in front of the tree of life. It's ok.

We stopped at the Wilderness Explorer Station for pencils. The girls had there books from September and wanted to finish up the books. The CM were more than glad to give the girls new pencils and we headed out. Directly across the way, there was a CM trading pins. So, we checked that out to see if there was any the girls wanted to trade.


Morgan traded for a Hidden Mickey Swan Pin.


And Gwen went with a cute Chip Pin.


We stepped to the side to let the girls situate there pins and I snapped a picture of Everest. It is such a great view! We almost lost one of the newly traded pins, but a person walking by just happened to see it at Gwen's feet and pointed out to us! After that, I have the girls put the newly traded pins inside there bags. We can't seem to keep the pins on those lanyards.

We moved on and continued our stroll towards Africa. We passed the Starbucks and I saw someone with the giant mickey shaped cinnamon rolls. We totally should have just stopped and gotten one, but I said we would get one later. Spoiler Alert, it didn't happen. :(

We made it back to the Safari before our fastness time. And Morgan wanted to get a sticker for her book. So, we found a Wilderness Explorer station by the Gorilla Trail.


Here, the girls learned about radios or something. I wasn't really paying attention... I was busy trying to find some snacks as I had all of a sudden gotten super hungry and totally regretting ate we hadn't gotten that cinnamon roll! I had packed these little pack so peanut butter and dried bananas. So, I pulled that out to snack on.


The CM was really nice with the girls and he said that there were more stations on the trail. So, we decided to head into the trail.

I think I am going to stop here, I have a handful of photos from the trail and I don't want to lose what I have typed up so far!
Up next the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail! Would we make it through the whole trail before our fast pass window for the Safari ends? Would we get into trouble for eating on the t
rail?
 


Day Two: Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail

We headed into the trail.


First up were some Monkeys...



I love the Wilderness Explorer thing, but the girls were so set on getting stickers, that they were walking right by all the animals. I had to make them stop and check them out!


Next along the path was the Yellow-back Duiker & Opka!



I love the Opka! they are so strange looking!


Gwen made a point to state her fact about the Opka being more like a Giraffe. She was super proud that she remembered the fact from last time.

Right after that, we saw this sign....



Oops!

It was all fine. We finished up what we were snacking on before heading into the first real area. The first building we came to had the Naked Mole Rats. My girls love them, some strange reason.


Gwen says "They are soooooooo cute!!!!" I don't get it, but ok.

We headed out of that building and found the hippos!

Our local aquarium has a big hippo exhibit with a big wall like this, so the girls checked it out, and moved on almost immediately.


Some fish hanging out with the hippos.




I do have to say it was fairly busy on the trail! Especially for so early in the day! I was surprised. It was kind of hard to get pictures with no one else in the pictures!

But they didn't find a Wilderness Explorer in here, who instructed them to "identify" some birds. They basically just talked to the guys about a couple of the birds, and earned a sticker. He was a very nice man who was from Africa, and the girls were having a hard time understanding him. But they got the sticker!

We moved on to where the Zebras and Meerkats were. There were 2 Wilderness Explorer CM in this area.



I am not even sure what this CM talked to the girls about. As, I was too busy looking at the Meerkats!










I mean how cute are they!?! Did I take too many pictures of them? It was chilly this morning and they were all huddled together for warmth.

The girls finished there first sticker badge. And We got them to check out the meerkats. Oh, and there were Zebras too!




It was nice to see the Zebras, last time we did the trail, they were very far back, and hard to see.

We found the other CM and the girls talked her. They talked about Bats, I think. And Morgan told the lady about the time we found a bat in our closet! Great.....


After the girls earned there sticker here, we headed to see the gorillas!


The first area was a group of male gorillas. The CM that was standing in the area, was explaining the break up of the gorillas. Basically all the young males stay together. And the women gorillas hang out with the young ones and help raise the babies together.


This guy was way up on a hill top. We think he was the baby gorilla we saw 2 years ago. We had been there right when a few were born.


And this was the alpha gorilla... just taking a snooze...


At this point, Morgan was starting to worry that we were going to miss our fast pass window for the safari. So, she was checking out the map to see how much farther we had.


Morgan's concerned face... Sigh... such a worrier!


We saw some of the momma gorillas on the way out of the trail.

We successfully made it out of the trail at 10:15. 15 minutes to spare before our fast pass window was up! Plenty of time! The girls got a good 4 or 5 stickers from walking along the path. So, well worth it.

Next up, a ride into the Safari!

Would we see Elephants?! Would we get Gwen to ride Everest again?
 
When my kids were younger and used to trade pins we discovered quickly that you would lose the pins off the lanyard if you didn't buy the safety backs for them. Which is a separate purchase of course! That Disney, always thinking! :rolleyes1

My kids love the naked mole rats too! I think it's the funny name. :rotfl:

Great update! :flower1:
 
We had a great time, of course it wasn't enough time but we made the best of the time.

It's never enough time, but better than no time.

Gwen is clearly super excitied and well, Morgan is not...

Gwen's excitement is great! Morgan has to process things more slowly. I'm glad she came around.

I had said that if we wanted to do the Nav'i River Journey we would need to be there AT 8:00 am... Well, that didn't happen... But it was ok.

I'm a rope dropper, but had to make some changes when we went in February. It was real hard for me to learn to let it go.

The girls checked out the gifts from Tinkerbell for the day.

Cool gifts.

And I ordered decals for the magic bands. Just small little ones, I wasn't ready to commit to the full decal ones.

Very cute. I started with the small ones too.

We had seen some Brazilian tour groups yesterday, and Gwen wanted to be the tour guide for us this morning...

We saw lots of the tour groups when we were there. And lots were at POP with us.

I grabbed a picture of our newly decaled magic bands while on the bus.

Looking great!

snapped a picture of Everest. It is such a great view!

Beautiful picture!

We totally should have just stopped and gotten one, but I said we would get one later. Spoiler Alert, it didn't happen. :(

Can't count the number of times we have said we would get it later. . . . and didn't.

I love the Wilderness Explorer thing, but the girls were so set on getting stickers, that they were walking right by all the animals. I had to make them stop and check them out!

I could see this happening.

Gwen made a point to state her fact about the Opka being more like a Giraffe. She was super proud that she remembered the fact from last time.

See, she learned something.

Gwen says "They are soooooooo cute!!!!" I don't get it, but ok.

They are cute in a naked rat kind of way.

I mean how cute are they!?! Did I take too many pictures of them?

Now these are really cute, and no you didn't take too many pictures. I love them and usually only get one of two pictures.

At this point, Morgan was starting to worry that we were going to miss our fast pass window for the safari. So, she was checking out the map to see how much farther we had.

I would have been worried too.
 
Gwen's excitement made up for Morgan's! I'm sorry she wasn't thrilled at first. Great photo in front of the castle! Can't wait to hear about the trip!

Sounds like a nice morning at AK so far!
 
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Oh, just love this SO much!!!! I'm excited to hear all about it :)

And were able to get past the turnstile and into the park at 8:55! Sweet, we made it for EMH! It's counts, right? !? No?
It totally counts.

I said we would get one later. Spoiler Alert, it didn't happen. :(
This happens to me EVERY time we go!! I seriously should know by now that if I say it'll happen later, I should get myself right back over there and do it NOW or it'll never happen.
 
I had ordered a bunch of pins off of amazon before our September trip. I have been dolling out a few on the September trip, Christmas, this trip and this Disneyland trip. It has been perfect. They weren't the best ones, but the girls have loved trading with CM.
Darn, I should have brought out my pins when I saw you! I have a lanyard with trading pins I sometimes trade with CMs.


We had seen some Brazilian tour groups yesterday, and Gwen wanted to be the tour guide for us this morning...
So cute!

And were able to get past the turnstile and into the park at 8:55! Sweet, we made it for EMH! It's counts, right? !? No?
I think so!


And Gwen went with a cute Chip Pin.
Double darn, I have the Dale that matches that Chip!


I mean how cute are they!?! Did I take too many pictures of them? It was chilly this morning and they were all huddled together for warmth.
Cute! None of them were out when I walked the trail.
 
Welcome back! Glad to hear the trip went well, despite Morgan's reaction to it. Poor thing I'm sure that was a long day for her. And Gwen of course continues to prove she and Casey may have been separated at birth.
Thanks! Seriously, we will have to get them together one day.

Seems that Gwen was excited enough for both of them! :laughing:
She def was! Her excitement went on for awhile!

I'm glad Morgan came around too - sounds like she'd had a stressful day. I think all stressful days should end with a trip reveal, don't you?! :rotfl: That would make my life far less stressful :rotfl2:
Wouldn't that be nice! These girls don't know how good they have it!

I enjoyed seeing some of your photos on FB while you were there. Looking forward to hearing all about it! :)
I wanted to post more, but I have non-disney crazy friends who make comments when I post too many photos... :(

When my kids were younger and used to trade pins we discovered quickly that you would lose the pins off the lanyard if you didn't buy the safety backs for them. Which is a separate purchase of course!
I think we have some of those. We started just having the ones that they want to trade on the lanyards and the keep ones in the book bags and then in there books once at the hotel.

Can't count the number of times we have said we would get it later. . . . and didn't.
Right?! And writing this, I have no idea why we didn't stop. Oh well...

I would have been worried too.
Morgan is such a worrier. Which is why we didn't want to tell her about the California trip earlier. She would have worried about the long flight.

love your report. Your girls are adorable.
Thanks for reading along! And thanks, I like to think they are cute but i know I am biased.

I'm sorry she wasn't thrilled at first.
I kind of knew that would happen but I didn't think she would actually cry!

Darn, I should have brought out my pins when I saw you! I have a lanyard with trading pins I sometimes trade with CMs.
It's ok. Next time! Hopefully our trips with overlap at some point!
 
I'm late but I am here!

Port Orleans French Quarter
Never have I ever stayed here...but I really, really want to. Maybe one day I will get to check it off the list!

So, the day before we left, Morgan made clues at school and gave them to Gwen in carline.
This is so cute!

And FINALLY on take two, we were off to the airport!
Whoo hoo!

some Crab Fries for Andy and I from Chickie n' Pete's take out window.
Do tell! I have never heard of these and I love me some crab.

So, I read my book that I have tried to read for like a year. (Spoiler Alert: this is all I have read of this book since then)
I love to read and I do go in spurts but nowadays I mostly just read the Dis...lol.
 
Andy and I sat at the table in the room and tried to eat our giant sandwiches!

This is the Fried Catfish Po'Boy with house-made chips.


And then this is the Fried Shrimp Po'Boy with Cajun Fries.
These look really good to me. I'm not sure if I have mentioned that DH is from Louisiana so he would probably complain about how un-authentic they were.

I was SUPER worried about Morgan and how she would be feeling.
I hope she got to feeling better quickly!
 
I asked her if she thought she wanted to go to a park today and she said responded with a big YES! Ok, then! I gave her another dose of the kids Ziacam and we started getting moving.
Yay!


Tinkerbell left her first official gift! I grabbed the jackets off of the Disney Store when they were having a sale, I think I got them for $9 a piece or something.
So cute! I think I got Will a Cars jacket for about that much. Must've been around the same time, maybe.

I put our fast passes on them this time around and what park we were going to that day. Which the girls actually seemed to like!

I knw\ow I have seen them before but I just love them. I need Andy to send me a template!

When we go tot he bus stop we found this:
Oh goodness, no!

We made it through the turnstiles by 9:15. Not too bad for taking our time and not rushing.
I'd say! I thought for sure you guys would be later than that with how relaxed you guys were.

BUT I spotted THIS as I was taking the photo above. And said that we should try and ride it!

At first the girls protested, they just wanted to get to Space Mountain. But I said it would be fun! And you can only do it in the morning. So they agreed.
So fun!


We spotted this cute little boy dressed like the dapper dans. How cute!
Way too cute!


Gwen said she felt like a movie star riding on the bus. This was her Movie star pose....
Look at that Sassy Girl!
 
Sounds like a nice morning at AK, so far. I'm the same as Morgan, always worrying when I near the end of a FP window.
Pretty cool that there were so many Wilderness Explorer stations set up along the trail.
 

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