Jingle Bells....AKL....Disney for 10 Whole Days! ** Updated June 2015: Videos Added**

[DisneyKid4Life]

Oh wow yeah, I've ridden Barnstormer a grand total of once. And I thought Rockin' Roller Coaster was short. You did get some fun pictures though.

Awww so sweet of the kids to wave to the Small World passengers since they'll probably never be seen again.

I can't lie... I like the hat.

OK, you've come up with a great way to make Small World passable... silly face pictures!!!!

 

[scottny]

I never noticed the clowns descending from the balloon. LOl.
It looked like a blizzard hit that cake. LOL.
Pirates is so hard to photograph.
I think we sat at the same table the night before at BOG. LOL.
Looked like a great lunch.
LOL. She is a comedian.
Teacups after lunch? Oh I could never. LOL.
Dumbo is fun. We usually skip the interactive part.
The treats look good.
Love that seat in Pinocchio’s.
So many people because it was closed till the day before and most of that day it was still down. Never got to ride it. 
I think the hat looks like fun.
Funny faces on IASW.

 

[thornton0511]

Oh wow yeah, I've ridden Barnstormer a grand total of once. And I thought Rockin' Roller Coaster was short. You did get some fun pictures though.
only once Rob.....really?
Awww so sweet of the kids to wave to the Small World passengers since they'll probably never be seen again.
lol, they usually make weird faces at them so I was fine with the waving
I can't lie... I like the hat.
Ha!
OK, you've come up with a great way to make Small World passable... silly face pictures!!!!

Yes!

 

[thornton0511]

I never noticed the clowns descending from the balloon. LOl.
It looked like a blizzard hit that cake. LOL.
Pirates is so hard to photograph.
I think we sat at the same table the night before at BOG. LOL.
Looked like a great lunch.
LOL. She is a comedian.
Teacups after lunch? Oh I could never. LOL.
Dumbo is fun. We usually skip the interactive part.
The treats look good.
Love that seat in Pinocchio’s.
So many people because it was closed till the day before and most of that day it was still down. Never got to ride it. 
I think the hat looks like fun.
Funny faces on IASW.

Yes the balloon clowns are creepy. That's funny with BOG...did we not also just miss you guys at Sanaa too? Wow that's crazy.I'm sorry that you missed IASW this time around, and I am sure you were heartbroken lol. That's guy's hat was not terrible....I'll admit it was a fun hat.

 

[thornton0511]

The End of a Magical Day
After IASW we had another FP+ time scheduled for BTMRR. So we headed to Frontierland. It was now around 5:15pm. We did not have too much time for park touring left since it was a MVMCP night.

My little warrior had become increasingly fearless over the course of this trip.

I was proud of both of my seemingly timid kids overcoming some of their ride fears this week.

After BTMRR some of the people in our party wanted to try Splash again….well those who did not get soaked the last time anyways.

DMIL and I had no problems sitting this one out.

See how everyone but us seems to be smart enough to not sit in the front row? Life lessons….we will just leave it at that okay?!
By the time they were through with Splash it was nearing 6pm and I knew that time was running out for us with the park closing for MVMCP this evening. We were on one last MK snack mission.

DH and DS split from us in search of a churro. They had a really hard time finding one too. Weird.

There was one place I just had to visit before this trip was over. Aloha Isle….I had to have a dole whip.

This was also the in laws first and only opportunity to try this fantastic thing….they are officially part of the club I am happy to report. Ah with a dole whip in hand everything just seems right with the world….

They were now getting everything ready for the party as we made our way over to Fantasyland. We had one last FP+ scheduled before getting kicked out of the Magic Kingdom. Peter Pan. And I could not think of a better or more epic ride to finish the day with either. It was perfection!

We managed to quickly get one last picture of the kids with Cinderella's Castle just because you can never have too many of those…right?

Then I had to get one last one with the toy soldier ….sarcasm was starting to set in with my offspring and picture taking.

One last Christmas tree picture….

And goodbye dear Magic Kingdom at Christmas time….you will be missed.
​

 

[thornton0511]

Our Last Dinner

After fighting our way out of the park we took one last MK family picture (you can tell it had been an exhausting day) and headed toward the boat docks.

Good grief there was a lot of commotion with everyone coming and going and getting on and off transportation. It was a little hectic. And I knew cutting our exit this close to the party time would be but the amount of people was still a bit shocking. Regardless we managed to get on a boat by 6:45pm

Disney boat selfie!!!!

We were on our way to Wilderness Lodge for dinner. The boat ride there was a somber one. They were playing "A Whole New World" over the boat speakers and with MK lit up in the background it was very emotional. It had been such a wonderful trip and full of so many great memories. But it had also been a very long trip and very exhausting. This is always the part when I am ready to go home but not wanting to admit that it's coming to an end too. Sigh.

Soon enough we had arrived at a resort that I have wanted to visit for the longest time! Disney's Wilderness Lodge! And I could think of no better time to see this place in person for the first time than when its decorated for the holidays!

I hope that you are ready for some pictures?!

Everything was so beautiful!

It's Christmas time in the lodge people!!!

Best tree EVER!!!

I bet Santa has one just like this!

Wilderness Lodge Love!!!

It’s a freakin teepee in the tree people!!!

GAH! I LOVE DISNEY!!!
Continued next post….
​

 

[thornton0511]

Whispering Canyon Café

After taking pictures of EVERYTHING it was time to check in for our last dinner. Whispering Canyon Café!!

While we were checking in the kids played with Lincoln Logs with their Nana. I love Lincoln Logs you guys and I am not ashamed to admit that I still play with them lol!

We were seated within a few minutes (7:45pm to be exact)and we knew exactly what we wanted to order…..all you can eat western nom nom. Obviously people we are from Texas after all!

It all started with some blurry salad apparently….

And some really really good cornbread! Then we had some sides….

Beans…..

Potatoes….

And all this yummy…..

I will say that the seating was a bit awkward for being served family style with a party our size sitting a two round tables pushed together, but hey we're in Disney so it's all good!!! There seemed to be one thing missing from the table however….

The infamous "WE NEED KETCHUP!!!!" Indeed.

For dessert everyone went with the old cheesecake in a glass

And Miss Sydney went with the bowl of chocolate chip cookies which were apparently good enough that she could not wait for mama to snap a picture of first!
We ended up being there a really long time. but hey, it was our last dinner and we wanted to make the best of it! Finally at 11pm we were on a bus headed back to our resort.

What an awesome last full day at Disney it had been!

​

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Really good on the kids for overcoming their ride fears. It took me well into adulthood.

Haha, what you call sarcasm I call adorable. The way I figure it, you take those pictures when you get can, regardless of the motive, lol.

Oh GOD that last trek away from Magic Kingdom is horrendous. Especially on the Monorail where they remind you "If this concludes your visit to the Walt Disney World resort, we hope you had a wonderful time and will return home safely." I appreciate the gesture, but that's just mean.

Holy Moly, that was a long evening. But you do have to make every last second count.

 

[thornton0511]

Really good on the kids for overcoming their ride fears. It took me well into adulthood.

Haha, what you call sarcasm I call adorable. The way I figure it, you take those pictures when you get can, regardless of the motive, lol.

Oh GOD that last trek away from Magic Kingdom is horrendous. Especially on the Monorail where they remind you "If this concludes your visit to the Walt Disney World resort, we hope you had a wonderful time and will return home safely." I appreciate the gesture, but that's just mean.

Holy Moly, that was a long evening. But you do have to make every last second count.

Thanks Rob! I had no idea about the monorail statement about leaving....that is depressing! Boo to that!

 

[thornton0511]

Our Last Day in The World
This morning started off like any other morning we had had this week.

Breakfast pastries from the Mara

And our wonderful morning view from our balcony that included a baby zebra today. Ah it was a good start to our last official day in the world. We had finished breakfast and we were right on schedule. The plan for today was fairly simple. We had a 5:45pm flight back to Texas so that gave us until about 2:30 to do whatever we wanted until the Magical Express was scheduled to pick us up.
The plan was to eat breakfast, finish packing and check out, and try to be at AK as close to rope drop as possible. We had 3 early FP+ scheduled and planned on having lunch and then heading back to the resort in time to safely get on the bus. Easy peasy right? Except for one thing…..if there is anything any of you have gathered from our little adventure it 's that nothing really goes according to plan on this trip.
So getting back, we had finished eating and packing. We were right on time and on our way downstairs to the lobby to check out and hop on a bus to the park. I wanted to take one last potty break before heading down so the DH and the kids headed out to the hallway with our luggage to meet with his parents and wait for me. This is when things got interesting……and the most dramatic thing of all happened…….
And I am going to hold here and make you wait to build up the suspense……
​

 

[LifeTheDisneyWay14]

The No Way Jose looks great! I've never been to Beaches & Cream, but it's on my dessert bucket list.

 

[LifeTheDisneyWay14]

There's really not much better than Disney at Christmas time!

 

[LifeTheDisneyWay14]

I've never been to the Animal Kingdom (probably because I'm from South Africa, so I'm biased against safari recreations as not being 'good enough') but I LOOOOVE AKL so much - it feels like (expensive) home!

 

[thornton0511]

The No Way Jose looks great! I've never been to Beaches & Cream, but it's on my dessert bucket list.

Oh its WONDERFUL!

There's really not much better than Disney at Christmas time!

I agree...my two favorites all rolled into one!

I've never been to the Animal Kingdom (probably because I'm from South Africa, so I'm biased against safari recreations as not being 'good enough') but I LOOOOVE AKL so much - it feels like (expensive) home!

Oh wow I bet the seeing a REAL safari would be AMAZING! True Disney's Kilomanjaro is probably nothing compared to what you have seen in South Africa lol. Oh my goodness AKL is so beautiful!!! I could never get over it no matter how many times I walked into that lobby over the course of our trip!

 

[thornton0511]

Well….That's a First
So when I left off we were headed out to check out and then go to AK for a few hours before the Mickey bus was to pick us up. I had to stop in our room for one last potty break before heading down so the family was gathering in the hallway to wait.
I went about my business and when I went to grab the door handle to leave it happened……the door handle broke. Seriously. It just went went limp. In the locked position. With me still inside. Panic took over me as I realized I was alone in the room and the family was hopefully still in the hallway and not downstairs. Obviously I did not have my cell in the restroom with me being that I was not planning on an extended visit to the loo on this particular occasion. Thankfully DH heard me beating on the door and screaming and came to my rescue. I remember he asked me if I was okay. LOL. Yes dear when your wife is beating on the bathroom door and screaming everything is probably normal right? Ha! So when I told him my situation he said "seriously?" No darling I'm just kidding…..ha ha funny right? Yes I'm serious.
After making sure that I was physically okay he quickly got on the phone with someone and within minutes I could hear voices and realized somebody Disney was going to try to get me out. Good grief. Only me. At this point I have to give my family props because they must have realized that at some point I would want to document this moment in my trip report so they went to taking pictures lol.

I love my family! Lol what else were they going to do? Might as well take some pictures right?
These poor gents tried everything to get the deadbolt unlocked but nothing was working. Have you ever wondered if you get locked in a bathroom in Disney how many CM's it takes to get you out?

Apparently three. See you learn something new everyday people!
This whole ordeal was hilarious and after trying everything known to man they finally resorted to breaking the handle off of the door. This took well over an hour of me being locked in. Seriously.

This was the end result and all that was left of that evil door handle. Lol. I can't make this stuff up folks. I have to admit I was a bit embarrassed when I emerged from my rescued bathroom of doom. I walked out to an audience of my entire family, three Disney maintenance guys, and one mousekeeping lady.
Obviously I was fine, but while I was killing time for that past hour my mind did get to thinking and the way I see things it happened with the best case scenario. I mean for one I could have been naked. Seriously if I had just gotten out of the shower it would have been much more embarrassing emerging from the bathroom in front of all of those people with just a Disney towel. Also I could have been alone. What if everyone else had been at the park? And how long would it have taken for the fam to realize that I was not just taking an afternoon nap in the room. That would not have been fun. On a serious note I was thankful that it was me that got locked in and not one of the kids. It would have been heartbreaking if my then 7 year old could not have gotten out and I not be able to comfort her until someone did get her out. See best case scenario for getting locked in a Disney resort bathroom!
So anyways after assuring everyone I was just fine the crowds dispersed and we continued on with our plan of checking out downstairs in the lobby. Obviously we were a bit off our schedule for the day but let's be honest here hasn’t that kind of been our theme for this whole trip anyways?
We checked out of our rooms with no problems and soon enough we were on a bus headed to Animal Kingdom….finally! LOL. It was now 10:30 am. Not exactly rope drop but it does make for an interesting start to a day and we definitely had a new memory to take with us. I can just see this one being the one my kids still talk about when they are grown. "Remember that one trip when we were little and mom got locked in the bathroom at AKL and it took 3 people to break the door?" HA! Good grief.
​

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

While I love that you had some final Disney time planned on departure day, I can't lie. This makes me incredibly nervous for you.

O...M...GEE!!!!! I swear Jenn, getting locked in a Disney bathroom just somehow fits so perfectly with this TR.

HAHA, 3 CM's to open a door. Good to know why ticket prices keep rising.

Holy an HOUR???!!!!!! I guess they should have called in a fourth CM.

I have to hand it to you. You really did look on the bright side, and you gotta respect that. AND, let's be honest. These are the things you remember. Yeah, getting to AK at Rope Drop is great and all, but it's been done to death. Not getting to Rope Drop because you got locked in an AKL bathroom... well that almost never happens.

 

[thornton0511]

While I love that you had some final Disney time planned on departure day, I can't lie. This makes me incredibly nervous for you.
Given my track record I can't imagine why
O...M...GEE!!!!! I swear Jenn, getting locked in a Disney bathroom just somehow fits so perfectly with this TR.
Yup it sure does right?!
HAHA, 3 CM's to open a door. Good to know why ticket prices keep rising.

Holy an HOUR???!!!!!! I guess they should have called in a fourth CM.
Yeah I was stuck in there a good while
I have to hand it to you. You really did look on the bright side, and you gotta respect that. AND, let's be honest. These are the things you remember. Yeah, getting to AK at Rope Drop is great and all, but it's been done to death. Not getting to Rope Drop because you got locked in an AKL bathroom... well that almost never happens.

True story

 

[MEK]

No Way! Now THAT is a Disney first! You poor thing - getting locked in the Bathroom. Nope, can't make that up. That's for sure!

I am woefully behind on all my subbed TR's, but I have to admit that your's had the funniest most recent update. I would have died if I had been locked in there for longer than an hour.

Anyway - I will try to get caught up before you finish writing about your last day.

Oh - I almost forgot - the meal at the WL looked really yummy!

 

[thornton0511]

Animal Kingdom At Last

Finally at 10:30am we had arrived…..not exactly at rope drop but what do you do?

We took a moment to take it all in. This was our last Disney day. And I also can never ever get tired of looking at the Tree of Life. This park was being built the first time I came to Disney as a teen and I remember seeing footage of Disney getting this massive thing accomplished. It's amazing! I love Disney but you all probably already knew that lol.

Once we got to the tree we took a left and headed to Dinoland USA. Just kiddding lol we went right...did you catch that? My navigating skills are not THAT bad people!

We never ever start with Dinoland and it was nice to change things up a bit. One benefit I have found with FP+.

We decided to start with our family favorite. Dinosaur. LOL.

Never ever will get old. Love this ride!

Sydney decided she wanted her picture taken by the picture of her favorite scene from the ride. The part where the big dino in ingesting the little dino. Strange child. But she's mine lol! Apparently she was making strange facial expressions too at this point.

We made our way over to Dino-Rama for our now first FP+ of the day. It was 11am.

Ah yes….Primeval Whirl, another family favorite. Except for Sydney. This year I had finally talked DH into getting on and he ended up loving it, but with DD not so much luck.

Until today. On our last day at Disney my brave little Sydney conquered yet another feared ride! And as you can see she loved it! Laughed the whole time. proud mama right here!

After riding DFIL posed for a silly picture before we headed to the opposite side of the park. Our destination…

Camp Minnie Mickey. Let's take a moment to say our goodbyes to this wonderful area that is no longer…..thanks Avartarland.

This was our purpose. If you remember thanks to my navigating skills on day one we had missed our opportunity to see this show and that was not going to happen today. Not even getting locked in the bathroom for one hour was going to stop me from sharing one of the greatest shows at Disney with my in laws.

We sat in the lion section. We had major pixie dust on our first Disney trip in 2011 and had VIP seating for the giraffe section and Sydney had even been chosen to lead our section. We had not been since that time and I have to admit the special treatment had spoiled us a bit.

But this show is still AMAZING and I was so happy that we had gotten to experience it again and also share it with my in laws.

After the show was over we headed into Africa for our second FP+ experience.

Kilomanjaro Safaris!

We hoped into the FP line. It was a bit backed up. I am guessing at this point they were still working some bugs out of the system or whatever. FP+….ugh. LOL.

Soon enough our tour guide had arrived and it was time to hopefully see some animals!

I did wonder if this bridge happens to be part of the walking safari you take. Surly not. It did not look very safe lol.

Neither did the one suspended over the crocodile area. Geez I wonder what kind of a waiver you have to sign for that experience? There was in fact a walking safari happening at this moment however and that is when I realized this is not something I would ever want to do. Go ahead and scratch that off the Disney bucket list. Why you ask?

Well let’s take this picture for instance. See the people tied to the harness on the cliff. See the hungry hippos below? Yeah that looks safe. I'm sure that the hippos are very friendly and the ropes and harnesses are very secure. But paying Disney a hefty fee to be tied to a harness and be eye candy for some hippos does not spell FUN to me lol.

After witnessing those poor people's near death experience we continued ahead hoping for some safer close encounters of our own.

Do you see that? Where? What am I looking at? Exactly. I don't know either lol. That was about as good as it got this time around folks.

Well we did see some of these guys but let's be honest. They are about as common on the safari and cows in Texas. Ah well.
It was now about 12:45pm and we did not have much time left for park touring and we were getting a bit of a rumbly in the tumbly too so we headed in search of food.
Continued next post…..
​

 

[thornton0511]

No Way! Now THAT is a Disney first! You poor thing - getting locked in the Bathroom. Nope, can't make that up. That's for sure!
Ha! Made for a great memory though! But yes at the time I was not too happy.
I am woefully behind on all my subbed TR's, but I have to admit that your's had the funniest most recent update. I would have died if I had been locked in there for longer than an hour.
No worries. I am just as guilty with reading TR's and keeping up! I hope to get this one done ASAP since we are getting close to our trip to CA and Disneyland!
Anyway - I will try to get caught up before you finish writing about your last day.

Oh - I almost forgot - the meal at the WL looked really yummy!

Thanks! It was pretty darn yummy lol! Thank you so much for hanging in there with my TR!!!