Cocoa Beach, Royal Caribbean Cruise and WDW vacation - Days 6-9 - WDW

Walt Disney World

I don’t usually write full on detailed trip reports of WDW. This was our fourth trip with our first being four days in April 2013, then we went again for a few days in June 2014, combined with our first ever cruise on the Disney Dream. Our most recent trip in October 2017 was a full week. So for this trip, we were mostly focused on trying a few new things and hitting our favorites. I’m still a planner, though and I had some detailed plans, but I also had some days that were less planned (*gasp*). As I mentioned in the last entry, we split up, with Roger returning home. He’s not as big on the parks (definitely prefers cruising) so he wasn’t super sad to miss out.


The path that leads to the boats at Wilderness Lodge.

Since we now know how things work, at this point we can get away with having fewer plans (new folks - don’t try this - I recommend PLANS) and when things don’t go your way, like torrential rain and lightning storms shutting down half the rides for much of the afternoon, throwing everything out of whack, we could roll with it and not worry about it.

I had that aforementioned shiny new Annual Pass burning a hole in my pocket and I knew for sure we would be coming back in February and was hopeful for a trip at the end of the year (I’ve since booked that trip so we’ll be going back November 2019 and February 2020). The Monday that we disembarked and said goodbye to Roger, we hit both Epcot and Hollywood Studios, caught the March of the First Order at Hollywood Studios, rode some rides in Future World at Epcot, got caught in a huge drenching downpour, ate at Sci-Fi Dine In Restaurant, and watched the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular.


March of the First Order


Sci-Fi Dine In Theatre

Tuesday morning we had tickets for Early Morning Magic in Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom and we were able to enter the park at 7:45 with a small group of fellow ticket holders to ride the rides with a reduced wait. We rode Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, and finished up by riding Seven Dwarfs Mine Train three times in a row. We could have ridden more, but we decided three in a row was the limit of our tummies. We had fun making wacky faces for the on-ride photos. We then hit Space Mountain at rope drop with approximately 8 million other people (plus or minus a million) and then enjoyed the included breakfast with our tickets (which was actually really pretty tasty). I never want to rope drop Space Mountain again. It was actually sort of a terrifying crush of people.


We decided to get goofy with the ride photos since we know where the cameras are. This is our utterly terrified pose. I love the contrast with the dudes in front of us. 



We spent the rest of Tuesday riding various rides at the Magic Kingdom with our pre-reserved Fast Passes and then whatever else we could get Fast Passes for after those were used up. We also played some Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, which is officially one of Emmaline’s most favorite things that we discovered on our last trip and a great activity for when lines get long in the afternoon. After we enjoyed what I have decided is probably one of the best parades on the planet with the most amazing costumes and the awesomely over the top Maleficent steampunk dragon, we went back to our lovely hotel to relax and chill out.




Festival of Fantasy Parade

I absolutely fell in love with Wilderness Lodge and Emmaline enjoyed a bit of late afternoon swimming before it was time for our dinner reservation at Artist Point with Snow White, Grumpy, Dopey, and the Evil Queen who is one of my top character interactions (Stitch and Chip and Dale are high up as well). The food was absolutely amazing and we finished off the evening with some s’mores by the campfire at the hotel before getting to bed early.







Wednesday morning found us at another ticketed Early Morning Magic event, this time at Hollywood Studios. I decided that this was really going to be the best way for us to get to ride the new Slinky Dog Dash rollercoaster. We rode it three time and also had fun with the ride photos. It’s a fantastic coaster and while the breakfast wasn’t as good at this event, I’m super glad we did it and didn’t have to stress about Fast Passes (or rope drop) for it and Toy Story Midway Mania. I also liked the other new ride: Alien Swirling Saucers much more than I anticipated that I would. After a quick meet with Buzz Lightyear, we left the park just as the rope drop line for Slinky Dog Dash was coming all the way out of Toy Story Land and into the rest of the park and growing longer by the minute. Yikes.




More ride photo shenanigans. This pose was Emmaline's idea. 



We took the bus to Animal Kingdom and arrived mid-morning with all the people who probably should have been rope dropping. It was fine though, we had plans and Fast Passes and a lunch reservation at one of my favorite WDW buffets: Tusker House. We had a strange truncated and unscripted bird show because they were having technical difficulties and I got a little emotional at “Festival of the Lion King” (I always get a little teary during “Circle of Life,” I’m sorry, but that is one of the best songs Elton John has ever written). We also got caught in another insane downpour and had to wait it out for awhile. We killed time by attending “It’s Tough To Be a Bug” which is awful and nobody should ever go see it, except that it affords a pretty great view up close to the Tree of Life when entering and exiting. But seriously, Disney, fix that show. We had always skipped it before because it had less than stellar reviews, but we didn’t know what else to do. Pretty much anything else would have been better.


Baby giraffe!




Oh hey, this is a great backdrop with the Tree of Life. Let me get a nice photo of you! (Or not...)

We traveled back to our hotel and enjoyed the other table service restaurant at Wilderness Lodge, Whispering Canyon. We did, in fact, order the ketchup because Emmaline legit wanted it for her chicken. When you order ketchup at Whispering Canyon, they bring EVERY SINGLE BOTTLE in the entire restaurant to the table. When someone else needs ketchup, you and others around are responsible for rounding up the ketchup and delivering it there. We set out after dinner to the Magic Kingdom to enjoy the best fireworks in the world (yes, the world, no, I’m not exaggerating). Then we enjoyed a fairly empty and low key boat ride back to our hotel. It beats the pants off that stupid bus area at the Magic Kingdom. Did I mention I loved Wilderness Lodge?

Thursday was our final day at WDW and we had to check out of Wilderness Lodge (*CRY*) and move to All Star Music for one night. I had rented someone else’s timeshare points way in advance and then when it was time to book flights, it ended up being hundreds of dollars cheaper for us to fly home the next day so I got a cheap room for that extra night. We gave our luggage to bell services for them to move to the new hotel for us and we went to the Magic Kingdom for the morning. We had a few Fast Passes and I think we used a couple, rearranged one and then made a couple more, but ultimately, we mostly ended up playing a lot of Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom and another game in Adventureland that was also a sort of scavenger hunt game that is Pirates of the Caribbean themed. We also waited out yet another insane torrential downpour. I’m telling you, June in Orlando is crazy! The same things happened to us a couple of years ago at Universal. Every day brought INSANE downpours. I might be done with June in Orlando, ya’ll.


I can't figure out where the photo snaps in Haunted Mansion! I look derpy every time. Emmaline looks thoughtful. 

We left and went to check into our new accommodations, which were fine, but not as nice as our previous ones. We pressed some pennies in the machines and relaxed our poor aching feet before making our way back over to Hollywood Studios to eat dinner at 50’s Prime Time Cafe, which Emmaline loves, not so much for the food, but because she likes the tiny TVs showing old 50’s sitcoms and the waitstaff who chide you if you put your elbows on the table or use your “walkie talkie” during dinner. I think we rode Star Tours again because there was hardly any wait, did a little shopping, pressed some pennies and then found a spot to watch the new “Wonderful World of Animation” show as well as the “Galactic Spectacular” fireworks, which are super awesome (and have been updated since we saw them to include footage from the most recent Star Wars movies).  It was a good last day: a few rides, a good meal, some fireworks and some laid back fun. It was nice to go without a concrete plan and see where the day took us.

In my next entry, I’ll take a moment to recap my final thoughts about Royal Caribbean (which Roger is pretty much in agreement with).

Just for fun, I'll leave you with a photo of little Emmaline from our first visit to WDW.



Click here for my final thoughts/conclusions about DCL vs. RCCL.