"We forgot to go to Magic Kingdom!" (Not really) – A September 2019 Trip Report - F&W, MNSSHP - COMPLETE 4/17

[jrmint427]

Welcome to my latest trip report! I’m very excited to relive my favorite memories from our recent trip to Disney World and share what I learned this time around. During this trip we attended MNSSHP and the Food & Wine Festival, met 31 characters, wore 20 matching outfits and walked 58 miles.

This was our 3rd trip with kids, my 5th trip as an adult, and 7th trip ever. I’ve written previous trip reports for each year we’ve gone as adults (you can find them in my signature, of course!).

Onto the details…

When: September 19 – 26, 2019

Where: Wilderness Lodge and a family member’s condo (split stay)

What: 7 park days with no rest days (eek!)

Cast of Characters: A party of 7!



Me (Jessica / Mama Mouse), the planner of this trip. My favorite park is probably Animal Kingdom (though very hard for me to pick) and favorite rides are Flight of Passage and Expedition Everest. I am one of those people who likes to plan for Disney almost as much as I enjoy the trips themselves.

My husband (Pat / Daddy Mouse), a Disney lover as well, but maybe not on the same level as me. His favorite park is Animal Kingdom and favorite ride is Flight of Passage, but for this trip, said his favorite ride experience was Splash Mountain.

DD4 (turning 5 a few days after this trip), who also loved helping me plan this one. She says her favorite park is Hollywood Studios because of Doc McStuffins and the Aliens ride, but her favorite ride was Peter Pan and favorite show was Finding Nemo.

DD2 (turning 3 a week after this trip), who has managed to go to Disney three times before turning three years old. Her favorite park is Magic Kingdom, favorite ride was It’s a Small World, and favorite show was Beauty and the Beast. Both girls said their favorite character meet was Gaston.

My MIL, who has gone to Disney three years in a row with us. She took her boys (my husband and his brother) to Disney three times when they were growing up. Her favorite park was Animal Kingdom, and favorite rides were FOP and Kilimanjaro Safaris.

My mom and dad joined us as well (and came on our trip 2 years ago). Their favorite park is Magic Kingdom. My mom’s favorite ride is FOP and my dad said his is A Bug’s Life (you’ll understand later in the trip), but I think his real favorite is Peter Pan.

We love trying different food options at Disney, so there will be a lot of food reviews. The girls and I are vegetarians, so you’ll get our perspective, but the rest of adults eat meat, so I’ll include their thoughts on the food as well (they all indulge my need to write a good trip report).

As for the title of this trip report… to prepare my daughters for this trip, I added a “Disney planning” bedtime story to their nighttime routine where I would share a little bit about the things we would do and see while at Disney World. They like to know what to expect when we go new places and it helped us all get excited for our trip. This led to DD2 constantly reminding us of the things we had “forgotten” to do – usually because we just hadn’t gotten to it yet.

We spent our last day at Animal Kingdom and were waiting for Rivers of Light to start. DD2 suddenly started to panic and shouted, “We forgot to go to Magic Kingdom!” We spent three days there this year, but it was not enough for her. It was a cute moment. Stay tuned for more cute quotes from the girls!

 

[jrmint427]

Table of Contents

I will update this section as I go.

September 17-18: Travel Days
Our Travel Story, Part 1
Our Travel Story, Part 2

September 19: Arrival Day
Wilderness Lodge - Check In
Wilderness Lodge - Our Room
Wilderness Lodge - Roaring Fork
Wilderness Lodge - Resort & Pool
Wilderness Lodge - Whispering Canyon Café

September 20: Epcot
Pre-Park Opening ADR
Akershus
Anna & Elsa
Nemo, Turtle Talk, Living with the Land, Spaceship Earth
Food & Wine and The Three Caballeros
Food & Wine and Jasmine
Eat to the Beat & Frozen Ever After
Teppan Edo
Illuminations

September 21: Animal Kingdom
Everest, Dinoland, Minnie & Mickey
Maharajah Jungle Trek
Lion King, Navi River Journey, Satu'li Canteen
Searching for a Safari FP & Harambe Market
Kilimanjaro Safaris

September 22: Magic Kingdom + MNSSHP
Boat to MK & Dumbo
Barnstormer, Dumbo, Merida
It's a Small World, Carousel, Belle
Happy Birthday, Minnie & Mickey!
Tinkerbell & Castle Pictures
Columbia Harbour House & Big Thunder Mountain
Haunted Mansion
Festival of Fantasy Parade
Buzz, Monsters Inc., Teacups & Little Mermaid
Jungle Navigation
Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party - Part 1
Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party - Part 2
Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party - Part 3
Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party - Part 4

September 23: Magic Kingdom
Check-out and Boat to MK
It's a Small World, PhilharMagic, Peter Pan
Casey's Corner
Castle Pictures
Tiana and Rapunzel
Hall of Presidents, Silhouettes, Jungle Cruise
Pirates, Pirates & more Pirates
Magic Carpets
Artist Point Story Book Dining - Part 1
Artist Point Story Book Dining - Part 2
Artist Point Story Book Dining - Part 3
Artist Point Story Book Dining - Part 4

September 24: Hollywood Studios
Tower of Terror
Beauty and the Beast, Doc McStuffins, Pluto, Vampirina
Woody's Lunch Box & Toy Story Mania
Frozen Singalong & Rock n' Roller Coaster
50's Prime Time
Aliens & Car Show
Fantasmic

September 25: Magic Kingdom
The Boardwalk
Bon Voyage Breakfast - Part 1
Bon Voyage Breakfast - Part 2
Gaston
Ariel, Under the Sea & It's a Small World
Cinderella, Elena & Country Bears
Splash Mountain, Tiki Room & Carousel of Progress
People Mover, Monster's Inc, Teacups & Peter Pan
Pecos Bill

September 26: Animal Kingdom
Navi River Journey & Flight of Passage
Kilimanjaro Safaris & Gorilla Falls Trail
Satu'li Canteen
Expedition Everest & Finding Nemo
Pocahontas & A Bug's Life
Pizzafari & Tree of Life Pictures
Sunset Safari
Rivers of Light - Part 1
Rivers of Light - Part 2

September 27-28: Trip Home
Travel Home & Dumbo Birthday Party

 

[Greystar]

Here! Looking forward to reading about your trip. We’ll also be getting in one last “free before 3” trip!

 

[Isabelle12345]

Following!
I can’t wait to hear about your trip! I love that picture with the matching outfits!
Your daughters have grown so much since your last TR! It will be fun to hear those adorable funny quotes from the girls
I love the idea of adding a Disney planning bedtime story - how long before did you prepare them?
Can’t wait to read more about what you did and what you learned - I have already taken so many tips from your previous TR, this will be fun!

 

[jrmint427]

Here! Looking forward to reading about your trip. We’ll also be getting in one last “free before 3” trip!

Welcome! It's definitely a good reason to go when they are little

Following!
I can’t wait to hear about your trip! I love that picture with the matching outfits!
Your daughters have grown so much since your last TR! It will be fun to hear those adorable funny quotes from the girls
I love the idea of adding a Disney planning bedtime story - how long before did you prepare them?
Can’t wait to read more about what you did and what you learned - I have already taken so many tips from your previous TR, this will be fun!

Welcome! Thank you They have gotten so big over the past year and it was really funny to watch them this year

I started preparing them 2-3 weeks before we left. Each night we'd talk about plans for one day at Disney and I cycled through our trip a couple of times. They had a lot of questions about the rides!

I'm so glad to hear the last one was helpful and hope this one is as well!

 

[jrmint427]

Our Travel Story, Part 1

I know the “how we got to Disney World” part is usually fairly boring – all that matters is we made it there, right? But we had a bit of excitement on our way and I have a few cute pictures to share, so I will include this part of our story anyway.

We have flown and driven to WDW in the past and while many people think we are odd, we prefer to drive. It’s almost 15 hours of drive time plus stops. We load our van with snacks and activities for the girls, play car games and listen to podcasts (I always appreciate recommendations if you have any favorites - Disney or otherwise!). My MIL flew into TX to make the drive with us, which was a big help.

We were planning to make the drive in two days, leaving on Sept. 18th and arriving on Sept. 19th, but ended up leaving a day early. A storm was forming in the Gulf the week leading up to our trip, and it was making me very nervous. I was obsessively checking the weather while at work on Sept. 17th. The storm was heading right toward us and there was speculation that it could become a Tropical Storm. At 3:00pm that day, the storm was upgraded and given a name – Imelda.



(this was the picture my husband texted me around that time)

There were flood warnings and Pat and I were texting as we debated what to do. Flooding in our area is a serious issue (our neighborhood was hit hard by Harvey; luckily our house was okay, but we were surrounded by water for several days). We did not want to risk being stuck at home the next day as the storm was predicted to get worse. My MIL’s flight was on time to land around 5:00pm, so I made quick arrangements to board our dog a day early, and with my manager’s blessing, wrapped up a few items and left work to finish packing so we could get on the road that evening.

I had finished most of our packing the weekend before (I knew work would be crazy as I got ready to be gone for almost two weeks), and just had a few things left to pull together. I got gas and picked up the girls from school. They had been counting down the days to our trip and were surprised to hear we were leaving right then!

The next hour was a bit of a whirlwind as I packed our van and waited for my husband to get home with my MIL. It had started raining lightly and I anxious to get on the road. It was 6:45pm when we left our house, without a plan for where we would stop for the night.

This was the sky as we drove out of town:



We took a slightly different route than we normally would take to try to stay further north as the storm was moving into the coast. Unfortunately, we still hit a few bands of pouring rain where we could barely see ahead of us. We considered looking for a place to pull off the road (we were on a somewhat rural road) but thankfully the worst bands of rain didn’t last too long. We seemed to be out of the pouring rain about 1.5 hours into our drive and decided to drive further East to try to make sure we were far away from Imelda.

We didn’t want to stop in the storm, but the girls were getting worried that they weren’t going to get a real dinner. They blew through most of the snacks I had packed for the ride out and said they were still hungry. We finally stopped at a Taco Bell drive-thru around 9:00pm. They have decent vegetarian options with bean burritos and potato tacos. The girls love the cheesy roll-ups. Not the healthiest option, but it worked for a quick "late night" dinner.

Both girls fell asleep shortly after “dinner” as we drove to a hotel I booked along the way in Jennings, Louisiana. We got in around 10:30pm. Both girls woke up as we got into our hotel room and DD2 asked, “But where’s the castle?”

The girls got a second wind (always seems to happen if they nap for a bit) and it was close to midnight before we were all asleep.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Following along! That must've been very stressful rearranging your travel plans but glad the drive went mostly without incident!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I'm here!!!! Can't wait to hear about all of it!

During this trip we attended MNSSHP and the Food & Wine Festival, met 31 characters, wore 20 matching outfits and walked 58 miles.

That is alot of matching outfits!!!!

DD2 (turning 3 a week after this trip), who has managed to go to Disney three times before turning three years old

That is a lucky little lady!

This led to DD2 constantly reminding us of the things we had “forgotten” to do – usually because we just hadn’t gotten to it yet.

So cute. I love it.

We spent our last day at Animal Kingdom and were waiting for Rivers of Light to start. DD2 suddenly started to panic and shouted, “We forgot to go to Magic Kingdom!” We spent three days there this year, but it was not enough for her. It was a cute moment. Stay tuned for more cute quotes from the girls!

Oh poor gal. I never get enough Magic Kingdom either.

At 3:00pm that day, the storm was upgraded and given a name – Imelda.

(this was the picture my husband texted me around that time)

Ha! This is something my DH would do as well.

I got gas and picked up the girls from school. They had been counting down the days to our trip and were surprised to hear we were leaving right then!

A surprise surprise reveal!

Both girls fell asleep shortly after “dinner” as we drove to a hotel I booked along the way in Jennings, Louisiana. We got in around 10:30pm. Both girls woke up as we got into our hotel room and DD2 asked, “But where’s the castle?”

I love it!

 

[dizneeat]

I am in here!
Trying to avoid a hurricane ........ yip, sounds familiar.

Your TR so far is a great read - even though I must admit I would not have wanted to be in your shoes on that drive. But it seems like you beat Imelda.

 

[VAtink]

Joining in! Can't wait to read more!

 

[jrmint427]

Following along! That must've been very stressful rearranging your travel plans but glad the drive went mostly without incident!

Welcome! I am such a planner, it definitely stressed me out. But turned out to be the right decision, thankfully!

I'm here!!!! Can't wait to hear about all of it!

Yay! Glad to have you - I learned so many things from your reports!

That is alot of matching outfits!!!!

It was sooo much to manage this year. I keep saying never again but then find cute things and my less logical side takes over.

A surprise surprise reveal!

I didn’t think of it like that but you’re right! I told the girls when Minnie and Mickey were in their car seats at pickup it would mean it was time to drive to Disney, so I guess I got my surprise in after all.

I am in here!
Trying to avoid a hurricane ........ yip, sounds familiar.

Your TR so far is a great read - even though I must admit I would not have wanted to be in your shoes on that drive. But it seems like you beat Imelda.

Thank you! Ugh, hurricanes. I have only lived in the south the past 10 years and I’m still not used to the crazy storms down here!

Joining in! Can't wait to read more!

Glad to have you here!

 

[jrmint427]

Our Travel Story, Part 2

Since we left a day earlier than planned, we thought we wouldn't need to rush the next morning to get on the road. DD4 ended up in our bed all night and DD2 woke up around 5:45am and moved to our bed too. So I probably don’t need to tell you that we did not sleep well. We were planning to sleep in, but when one of the girls woke me up at 7:15am, I checked the local weather on my phone, and saw that Imelda was reaching much further East than she was expected to. Bands of rain were coming our way around 9am. So I announced it was time for us all to get up and get dressed so we could get on the road before then.

We packed up, ate a quick breakfast at the hotel, and were on the road by 8:50am. We could see dark skies behind us and clear skies ahead, and were thankful we had gotten out ahead of the storm.

We love crossing over the bayous in Louisiana. It's such a pretty drive along I-10.



We stopped at a Target in Hammond, Louisiana for a few toiletries we had forgotten and I found Little Mermaid bubble wands there. As I learned the hard way, they were much cheaper than the wands at Disney... but this was not a good thing. One stopped blowing bubbles on our first day at the park, so the girls had to share the other one the rest of the trip. And the bubbles just weren't as good as the ones at WDW. I'll know for next time.

We listened to music from and/or about each state as we passed through them. We started with Creedence Clearwater Revival (“Born on the Bayou”) and then zydeco music in Louisiana. For Mississippi I had to use Wikipedia to find singers and bands from the state and played those. I learned Jimmy Buffett was from Mississippi.



The state welcome centers had some of our favorite bathrooms. We stopped at all of them! We pass through the southern states quickly, and were soon in Alabama. Any guesses what song I played as we entered the state?



Before we knew it, we were already in Florida. We love stopping at the Welcome Center here.



Unfortunately, we were greeted by this sign:



After 70 years, they are no longer serving complimentary orange juice at the Florida Welcome Center. It was sad to hear this tradition has ended after such a long run. A guy at the welcome desk told me they are looking for a new partner and are hopeful to continue the program again soon. They had a fun pretend campsite set up with props for taking pictures, which was new since last year. The girls had fun with those.







In total, we made at least 8 stops this day – the girls needed a lot of bathroom breaks. I feel like I can say I am an expert on highway bathrooms after this day, and I highly recommend state welcome centers over gas station bathrooms. We stopped for the night around 10:00pm EST in Lake City, FL (we lost an hour this day, so it felt like 9:00pm to us). It took us nearly 12 hours (with stops) to drive what should have been 9 hours on the road.

On Thursday, September 19th, the girls woke us up around 7:45am (so 6:45am for our body time). We were in no rush this day, since we had less than three hours to go and weren’t expecting our hotel room to be ready until 3:00pm. We took our time with baths and showers and ate a late breakfast at the hotel.



We were on the road around 10:30am. We made just one stop when we got close to Orlando. We arrived at our resort around 1:15pm… but I will save that for another post



Our total drive time should have taken 14.5 hours, but with all the stops we made, it took 18.5 hours over three days.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I love this picture! So sweet.

Our total drive time should have taken 14.5 hours, but with all the stops we made, it took 18.5 hours over three days.

I don't know how you do it! The adults wouldn't survive this drive.

But that is the best view to come up on!

 

[jrmint427]

I don't know how you do it! The adults wouldn't survive this drive.

Me either haha! But we’ve done enough that it’s routine now... and we’re lucky the girls are pretty good in the car (as long as I don’t run out of snacks).

 

[jrmint427]

Disney’s Wilderness Lodge – Check In

I have seen plenty of pictures before, but was still in awe of the Wilderness Lodge lobby and the giant fireplace.



There's also a fun water feature in the lobby.



I was pleasantly surprised to learn our room was ready when I checked in at 1:15pm. My mom’s room wasn’t ready until a little after 3:00pm.

I had forgotten our reservation was in Pat’s name and on his account, and didn’t do online check-in before we arrived. But I needed to talk to the front desk anyway. I wanted to pick up birthday buttons for the girls, make sure my parents’ room was next to ours (we ended up with one room between us, which was a little disappointing because we had hoped for adjoining rooms), and needed to request to have my magic band linked to the room because I wasn’t on the original reservation.

Our travel agent booked the room for us so I’m a little fuzzy on the details now, but we booked the rooms on a bounce back offer from our trip last year and I think we got 30-35% off both our room and my parents’ room. I believe we had to book a package deal with tickets and the room. However, I’m an Annual Passholder (since we knew we would have two trips within one year) and did not need a ticket with the room. But our TA couldn’t book the package deal with me on the reservation without a ticket, so she talked to a CM who said to book it for the rest of my family and request to have me connected to the reservation at check-in. They said there might be a small fee, but that I could be added (so my Magic Band would work as a room key and I would be considered a resort guest).

At check-in, they told me I was connected and all was good. But I quickly realized my Magic Band did not work as a room key, and when I tried to charge our lunch to the room, the payment didn't work. So I went back to the front desk and was told by a different CM that I could not be connected to our party because our reservation was booked incorrectly. I was texting with my TA who said the CMs she talked to all said this would work fine – but the CM at the front desk was on the phone with someone who was insisting that advice was wrong.

They first suggested I cancel our reservation and re-book right then, but that would take 30-45 minutes, and did not solve the problem of me not needing to buy another ticket since I already have an AP. Ultimately, they told me I was booked incorrectly (my TA disagreed – still not sure how this actually should have been handled), but gave me a day guest card to work as a key to our room. They also let me turn on DD4’s magic band to have charging abilities so I could use that when needed since mine would not work. This seemed like a reasonable workaround.

After checking-in we went upstairs to explore our room and were very happy to find we were in a room I had requested

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Me either haha! But we’ve done enough that it’s routine now... and we’re lucky the girls are pretty good in the car (as long as I don’t run out of snacks).

Oh, my girls would be totally fine, with fully charged Ipads and snacks a plenty. It's me and DH that would probably kill each other. All the more power to you!

I have seen plenty of pictures before, but was still in awe of the Wilderness Lodge lobby and the giant fireplace.

I can always look at pictures of this lobby. I just love it. And it has been way too long since we have been here.

They first suggested I cancel our reservation and re-book right then, but that would take 30-45 minutes, and did not solve the problem of me not needing to buy another ticket since I already have an AP. Ultimately, they told me I was booked incorrectly (my TA disagreed – still not sure how this actually should have been handled), but gave me a day guest card to work as a key to our room. They also let me turn on DD4’s magic band to have charging abilities so I could use that when needed since mine would not work. This seemed like a reasonable workaround.

What a headache!!!

After checking-in we went upstairs to explore our room and were very happy to find we were in a room I had requested

Well, at least you got a room you wanted!

 

[jrmint427]

Disney’s Wilderness Lodge – Our Room

We first went up to our room to drop our things off while waiting for my parents to arrive. We were in room 4024 and I was very happy with it! We had a queen bed and bunk beds. The theming in the room was very cute. I had requested a room on at least the 4th floor, facing Magic Kingdom, and that is exactly what we got.



Maybe it was just us, but none of the adults were convinced we actually had a queen size bed. It felt a lot smaller than the queen size bed in the hotel on our way to Disney - and we measure by how cramped it feels with two kids in it



The girls enjoyed playing on the bottom bunk, and it was a struggle to get them to stop trying to climb up to the top. Ultimately, they slept on the floor and in a pack n’ play, and my MIL took the bottom bunk.



I loved the view from our balcony. We were able to see fireworks from MK from our room! It's hard to spot in this picture, but we could see the top of the castle from our room, which made the girls very happy.



A quick safety tip though – they provide extra locks for the balcony doors, and I would keep those locked if you have little ones. We realized within minutes that our girls could open the balcony door on their own and that made me nervous until I found the extra lock on the door.

The room did feel a little small for being a Deluxe room. I read later that WL has some of the smaller rooms of the deluxe resorts, at 344 square feet. It did not feel very different from Port Orleans Riverside where we stayed two years ago, which apparently was 314 square feet. But we spent such little time in the room, it really wasn’t an issue. I think it was only cramped for us because we had 5 people / luggage for 5 people, a double stroller and a pack n’ play that all had to fit in.



The bathroom area, however, felt spacious. We stored our double stroller here. It was great to have two sinks and a separate shower/bathroom.



I loved the theme in the shower.



I need these character tiles in my bathroom at home!



And the detail on the pillows...



Did I mention we loved our balcony?



Overall, we loved the resort, the view from our rooms, the location (we were close to the lobby, food court and boat to MK), the pool, and the onsite food options. We would absolutely stay at the Wilderness Lodge again on a future trip.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

A quick safety tip though – they provide extra locks for the balcony doors, and I would keep those locked if you have little ones. We realized within minutes that our girls could open the balcony door on their own and that made me nervous until I found the extra lock on the door.

I don't blame you! Gwen STILL makes me nervous and she is 9!

The room did feel a little small for being a Deluxe room. I read later that WL has some of the smaller rooms of the deluxe resorts, at 344 square feet. It did not feel very different from Port Orleans Riverside where we stayed two years ago, which apparently was 314 square feet.

It def is. The Poly rooms are by far the largest!!! I think the bunk beds height also make the room feel smaller. We stayed in a bunk bed room once, and it felt smaller, even though it takes up less square footage.

I think it was only cramped for us because we had 5 people / luggage for 5 people, a double stroller and a pack n’ play that all had to fit in.

The stroller and pack n play will do that as well! Did they both sleep in the 1 pack n play together? My girls would never have done that. There would be WAY too much fighting! Ha.

You are making me want to stay here again. It has been so long!

 

[jrmint427]

The stroller and pack n play will do that as well! Did they both sleep in the 1 pack n play together? My girls would never have done that. There would be WAY too much fighting! Ha.

Haha, no! DD2 slept in the pack n play and DD4 slept on some blankets on the floor. We packed her nap mat and she slept on that at most hotels, on top of blankets - it has a blanket and a pillow attached. Mine would never sleep in a pnp together either

 

[jrmint427]

Roaring Fork

After unpacking a bit, we headed downstairs to the Roaring Fork for a late lunch around 2:30pm. We weren’t there long before my parents arrived – the girls were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa!



The food here was all around just OK. It was what you would probably expect of food court food, except with a Disney price tag ($42 for 3 adults and 1 kids meal). It was probably my least favorite meal of our trip, and I would only eat there again for the convenience factor, though others in our party liked it better than I did. I wished we had tried Geyser Point Bar & Grill instead. Multiple people during our trip told us Geyser Point is the better option (after our first day), but we never made it there.

I ordered the vegetarian pita, which came with red pepper hummus, field greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and feta on a whole wheat pita. It was fine, just a little bland. I don't like potato chips so I gave those away.



Pat ordered the Chicken Caesar salad and also said it was just OK.



My MIL ordered the Wilderness Salad and liked it. It came with chicken, candied walnuts, apples, cheese & apple vinaigrette. I wished I had ordered that without the chicken, but it would be a bit pricy for a salad without the chicken.



My mom ordered the turkey sandwich, which she said came with thick turkey and was good.



My dad ordered the pulled pork sandwich and thought it was good too. I liked his fries



The girls ordered a mac n’ cheese and barely touched it. I tried a lot of their mac n’ cheeses on this trip and this was my least favorite. The cheese did not seem to stick well to the pasta, despite it appearing to be very creamy. What you're seeing here is half the portion because I immediately divided it up between the girls.



As we were finishing lunch, my parents’ room still wasn’t ready yet, so we decided to explore the resort and went for a walk.