Escape to Our Home Away from Home After Three Years - A July 2021 Trip Report (**Updated 6/26**)

[cstorm65]

Day 3 Part 3 - A Ride Three Years in the Making

We were back in the park and we couldn’t wait any longer. Rise was back up and running and we had been waiting three years for this ride. We headed in and were blown away by the level of detail in the pre-ride queue, and this was just the Lightning Lane part of the line.

The entire pre show process on this ride is so awesome, from the hologram to the transport ship. I mean, the level of immersion is incredible. Then you get off the transport ship and come to maybe the best part:

That room is so cool and the boys were just in awe. Braxton was also pretty enamored with the stormtroopers and workers in the staging area for the “interrogation cell”.

We got into the interrogation room and the entire rest of the ride was a blur. We didn’t film much or take pictures because we just wanted to experience and wow…it was incredible! So many cool features to this ride. Brooks was actually a little wary of going again for some reason, so we will see how that goes, but the rest of us couldn’t wait!

It was pouring rain as we headed off the ride and we were hungry. It was about 6:00 at this time and as we were looking the only quick service locations still open were Catalina Eddie's & Woody’s Lunchbox. Well, if you don’t know, both are outdoors and again…it was pouring rain! It was this summer that Disney was still coming out of the hardship of COVID and trying to get workers hired back. Everywhere we went we heard about lack of staff, trouble finding workers, etc.

We love Disney, but I vented to April on this trip that we didn’t see any shortage of VIP Tour Guides or things like that where people were paying $800 an hour for a guide, but we can’t get some food available in the parks for dinner. Anyways, I don’t want this to get too negative and things were so much better this past summer, so let’s move on with the night!

With nowhere really to eat dinner we headed on over to Smugglers Run and waited about 30 minutes for our first ride here.

I figured Braxton wanted to drive, but he actually wanted to shoot the guns when he heard that was one of the jobs, so Brooks had to drive with me. I was worried it wouldn’t be too fun, but he did pretty good. I mean I’m not sure how the ride went because I spent the entire time yelling “left” or “right” to him, but it was fun nonetheless. It’s not a top tier ride, but it is definitely fun! When we got outside it was raining again, but I think it was driving some of the people away. We did manage to get a shot of the boys at the Millenium Falcon as we walked by.

With the rain going the Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway line was only 15 minutes, so we jumped in line and took our first spin on this new attraction.

We had a great time on this, so much so that we got back in line again and only waited about 10 minutes the second time. It is a really fun ride and I think it is the type of ride Hollywood Studios really needed. It was about 7:50 when we got out and we were hungry and with the lack of options we decided to head back to eat at the resort.

The Skyliner was down because of the weather, but we got on a bus to Pop Century pretty quick. We were back at Pop by 8:10.

While we were on the bus we mobile ordered a family pizza deal from Everything Pop, which came with a large pizza, breadsticks, and large salad. It was only $29 and it pretty much filled the four of us up. The pizza is just ok, tasted like Pizza Hut or something like that back home, but it did the job.

We finished eating and the boys were worn out and in bed, asleep by 9:00.

Up Next: That Really Was the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness​

 

[rdkeim]

Nice to see a new update! Overall it sounds like a fun day at DHS. Glad you finally got on Rise after the long wait to ride. It's hard to take it all in - there's so much to see. The lack of food options would have definitely been frustrating. The pizza deal actually sounds fairly cheap by Disney standards Dealing with rain is not fun but it does look like it thinned out the crowds which kind of makes it worth it.

 

[cstorm65]

Nice to see a new update! Overall it sounds like a fun day at DHS. Glad you finally got on Rise after the long wait to ride. It's hard to take it all in - there's so much to see. The lack of food options would have definitely been frustrating. The pizza deal actually sounds fairly cheap by Disney standards Dealing with rain is not fun but it does look like it thinned out the crowds which kind of makes it worth it.

It was a great day! Rise was so awesome! We definitely need to ride it again and we will on this trip!

The pizza deal was a good value for Disney, we agree with that!

 

[cstorm65]

Day 4 Part 1 - That Really Was the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness

We were up early this morning and at the bus stop because it was time for Rope Drop at the Magic Kingdom! We made it here at 7:35 for a 9:00 AM opening of the park. This was still before early entry started for resort guests.

The line was big to get to the Magic Kingdom and we actually had to wait on a 3rd bus to get on, which came at just after 7:50. We were ready for our day at the Magic Kingdom!

We made it here by 8:05 and the gates opened just a couple of minutes later.

They let us onto Main Street and down into the hub area to wait until the park opened at 9:00 AM.

We took our time getting down Main Street. We weren’t planning on doing Seven Dwarfs at rope drop today, so we weren’t super concerned with a great spot, so we just enjoyed being back with this view!

We made our way to the bridge heading into Liberty Square as we were going to start our morning with a ride on Peter Pan.

The park opened at 9:00 AM and we had an easy time making it over to Pan and it took us 10 minutes or so once we walked through all of the queue.

After Peter Pan we went back to do Big Thunder Mountain. It was about 9:20 when we got there and it took us about 5 minutes to get on the ride. Now, no pictures of BTMRR and here’s why. The skies were a little gray this morning. We get on the ride and out of the loading building off the first lift hill and it is sprinkling a little. We get to the second lift hill, which is outdoors, and the skies open up and start pouring out of nowhere. And by pouring I mean raining like there’s no tomorrow! This ride turned into a water ride in no time. We then called it the Wettest Ride in the Wilderness!

So, no pictures as we couldn’t really get our phones out, but we came out and figured that we were already wet, why not ride Splash Mountain. We got in line and about five minutes later it closed down for technical reasons, but they did give us a pass to come back later.

We headed over and decided to do something indoors in case it started raining again. It was about 10:20 at this point and Pirates was close, so we hopped in line. It took us about 15 minutes to get onboard, but had a great voyage!

We headed over to the Magic Carpets as the rain had moved away and the boys always like trying to get us wet from the camels.

The wait was quick on Magic Carpets and we decided it was a good time to go ahead and start getting lunch. We typically eat lunch between 11:00 and 11:30 when we are eating in the park to beat the crowds of people all trying to eat. We headed into Pecos Bills and this strategy paid off as we got a nice seat and enjoyed our lunch. I got the Beef Nachos. This is a good meal and the serving size is pretty good and you get a side of guacamole with it.

April always just gets an order of Chips, Queso, & Guacamole here. She is a big fan of chips and queso anywhere! Braxton got the kids burger, which he ate quickly and said he really enjoyed it. Brooks went with his standard, Mac & Cheese. It was the typical Disney Mac & Cheese, which resembles Kraft, so he enjoyed it!

It was about 11:45 when we finished and we of course had to have dessert and we were close to the place that serves there:

We shared a couple of Dole Whips and of course had to refill the popcorn bucket for Brooks. He would choose popcorn over almost anything at Disney, so he had that for dessert!

Up Next: Well, That Came Out of Nowhere​

 

[buteraa]

They are sooo cute!

 

[rdkeim]

Looks like getting up early paid off! Wow - that ride on BTMRR must have been quite the experience. Yikes. Glad it was a brief shower. Hope the rest of your MK day was good!

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Your boys are the cutest. Following along!

 

[cstorm65]

They are sooo cute!

Thanks! They are...most of the time!! haha

Looks like getting up early paid off! Wow - that ride on BTMRR must have been quite the experience. Yikes. Glad it was a brief shower. Hope the rest of your MK day was good!

It was an unforgettable experience. Dry one moment, soaked the next and there was nothing we could do about it.

Your boys are the cutest. Following along!

Thanks so much!

 

[cstorm65]

Day 4 Part 2 - Well, That Came Out of Nowhere

We finished our dessert and it was time to head out for a little break and some swimming back at the resort.

We almost always head out through the Emporium. It’s air conditioned and…well, do we need another reason than that? I don’t think so, but this was at that time when you can only enter through one entrance half way up Main Street because of health protocols. So, we just walked down Main Street, I’m not complaining, I just enjoy that air conditioned walk!

We got to the bus stop at 12:10 and a charter bus was waiting for us.

We were back at Pop Century by about 12:25. I don’t have any pictures of the afternoon, but I know we took naps and spent a considerable amount of time at the pool! So, in other words we took a vacation from our vacation! That’s what we call our restful afternoons!

We headed back to the bus stop at 4:05.

It was cloudy at this point and a bus pulled up at 4:12. As we were loading it started pouring out of nowhere.

It was actually one of those things that we were already in line, stroller packed up, ready to walk on the bus, and because of that we couldn’t really get ponchos out and put them on. It was a little stressful. Also, about halfway to the Magic Kingdom I realized in all of the craziness I never put my mask on, which was required on transportation, so I managed to fish that out of my pocket and get it on for the rest of the ride.

We were back inside the park by 4:40 and we stopped by the castle before heading to our dinner reservation.

Our dinner tonight was at a new favorite place for us, Liberty Tree Tavern. We had never eaten here in all of our trips until we made a spur of the moment reservation on the last day of our trip three years ago. We loved it that day and have been waiting to go back.

The first course was the salad and bread. The salad here is just alright and usually a little underdressed, but at a meal like this I’m not here for the salad! The rolls are pretty good as well though, but I like to wait and have then with the main dish!

Our platters arrived next. The turkey was actually really good. I’m not really a turkey fan, but I told April if it tasted like this at Thanksgiving I might actually eat it. The roast was also really good and it became Braxton’s favorite. The pork was the least favorite meat as it was pretty dry.

As far as the sides go we all really enjoyed the mashed potatoes, they were very creamy and seasoned well. The mac ‘n cheese is nothing special, very similar to what you get elsewhere in the parks. The menu says “homemade”, but if that’s the case they need to find a different homemade recipe. They also brought chicken tenders, which I think are part of the kids platter, but we all tried them and they were pretty good. Nicely cooked chicken and Brooks enjoyed these as long as he had ranch to dip them in. We also got french fries with the kids platter and wow…these were awesome. They were steak fries, which I am a big fan of, but they were seasoned perfectly. Now, these were better than you get most places at Disney, unlike the mac ‘n cheese.

Finally, the Toffee Cake came and this was as good as I had remembered. As far as desserts go this one is on the same level for me as the bread pudding at ‘Ohana. The warm cake with the ice cream is a perfect combination. Can’t wait to have this again!

We finished up and decided this was definitely a place that we will continue to eat. The meal isn’t perfect, but there is enough good stuff that we would for sure be back. Also, our server wasn’t just great, but he got food out quickly and he was friendly enough. We were out of our dinner at about 6:30 after getting our table at about 5:10.

We walked by the castle and decided we would had over and take a ride on one of our favorites, the TTA. Isn’t this just a perfect ride at dusk.

Up Next: How Can You Argue With Churros?​

 

[cstorm65]

Day 4 Part 3 - How Can You Argue With Churros?

We left off taking a relaxing ride on the TTA and then the boys wanted to take a non-relaxing ride here:

We made it off with our dinner still in our stomachs and headed back for a ride on Under the Sea. It was about 7:10 at this point and we waited 15 minutes or so to get on the ride.

Little Mermaid is April’s favorite Disney movie, so we always try and make time for her to ride that one! After we finished we headed over because Brooks wanted to ride Dumbo. Braxton didn’t want to ride so I think he and April just hung out in the area.

This is such a cool spot at night. The lights on the circus area are just really cool and of course you can see the castle as you go around!

With Dumbo finished the boys saw a snack cart there in the area and were asking for Churros. April and I weren’t really hungry after all of that dinner and toffee cake, but we decided that it’s hard to argue with Churros on an evening in the Magic Kingdom. So…churros it is!

After enjoying our snack the boys wanted to ride the Speedway and the line was down to about 10 minutes so we jumped in and waited about exactly how long it said we would.

We had been debating getting a spot to see the fireworks or just watching from Tomorrowland or Fantasyland. We decided to get a spot in the hub and were able to find a pretty good spot. We were right inside of the tape lines they put down. People kept lining up next to us. I don’t like to put the kids on my shoulders to avoid getting in other people’s way, but we had the stroller in front of me and April so the boys could stand on it. That way there aren’t any higher than head height for us and not in the way. Well, some lady stopped right in the middle of the pathway and the cast member told her she had to be inside of the tape. There was about one foot between the front of the stroller and the people in front of us. She forced herself into that spot, left the rest of her family to fend for themselves, and in doing so pushed the stroller back towards me. Brooks ended up with her butt right in his face as he was trying to watch the fireworks. That is why we normally just watch from other areas of the park. Ok, story time over, but that lady made us mad!

We ended up putting brooks on the standing part of our sit and stand stroller next to Braxton so he could see a little. It was still enjoyable to be back at Disney World watching fireworks!

We headed back into Tomorrowland after the fireworks and at about 9:35 we walked onto Buzz. It took us less than five minutes to get on, but by the time we got off the sign read a 40 minute wait.

We got on Space Mountain then at 9:55 using our Splash Mountain pass we got earlier in the day for it breaking down. The boys loved this one!!

Brooks wanted to do TTA again on our way out of the park…a kid after my own heart!

We did that and headed out, making it to the bus stop by 10:55. A bus came five minutes later and the boys were in bed, sound asleep by 11:45. A late night, but a good night! Time to sleep in tomorrow!!

Up Next: This Plan Really Backfired​

 

[cstorm65]

Day 5 Part 1 - This Plan Really Backfired

We had a late night at the Magic Kingdom last night. It was so awesome to get to watch fireworks in the park again, but it was a late bedtime! So, we slept in today and didn’t have a whole lot of plans until the afternoon. We made it out to the pool at about 10:00 and it wasn’t too crowded yet. We swam for a couple of hours and had just a great time relaxing.

We started to get hungry around noon, but April and I didn’t really see anything at the Pop food court that was appealing. So, I had the bright idea to jump on the Skyliner and go grab us some lunch at The Riviera. I had been wanting to try the new Primo Piatto and with the Skyliner we were only 15 minutes away. So, I went to do that. The Skyliner ride over to Riviera was super quick and easy!

I got to Riviera at about 12:30 and ordered some food. One thing about this place is that they do appear to make the food fresh. Even when ordering on the app it would take 20-30 minutes for food to be ready. That was ok though as I got some great pictures from around this brand new (at the time) resort.

Now, here is where my plan to come get lunch backfired. I had our food and walked back to the Skyliner at about 1:00 and the Skyliner was down. The cast member said it wasn’t weather, just some sort of technical difficulty. He assured me there would be a bus come by to get me back to Pop Century. Well crap…my plan to grab a quick lunch will now be a waiting game for a bus, not exactly what I had in mind. I got to the bus stop at about 1:10 and the bus came about 10 minutes later. It did take me about 25 minutes to get back to Pop Century though because the bus stopped at every Caribbean Beach bus stop and Art of Animation before finally dropping me at Pop Century.

So, we all got to eat at about 1:45. With all of the trouble I only got a picture of my meal, but it was a good one! The Croque Madame was awesome. The cheese melted on top is really good and it had a lot of ham on it. For just a sandwich it was really filling and well done.

April got a grilled chicken sandwich and tomato soup. The loved the soup, but said the chicken was a little dry. I’m sure the long trip back didn’t help the chicken.

Braxton got the kids shrimp and loved them. He is a huge shrimp fan! Brooks got chicken strips and he loved them as long as the dipping cups of ranch held out!

So, lunch was done and enjoyed despite my detour and it was time for a little break this afternoon before some more fun later on.

Up Next: No Line for a Family Favorite Attraction​

 

[rdkeim]

After a late night I'm sure your boys appreciated the relaxing morning. Oh, the best laid plans.....Disney transportation can be frustrating when things break down. But, your lunch looks very good! Last trip we stayed at Pop and we were pretty disappointed in their food choices/quality. But we were at Disney so it was all good.

 

[cstorm65]

After a late night I'm sure your boys appreciated the relaxing morning. Oh, the best laid plans.....Disney transportation can be frustrating when things break down. But, your lunch looks very good! Last trip we stayed at Pop and we were pretty disappointed in their food choices/quality. But we were at Disney so it was all good.

It was a nice relaxing morning. We have been disappointed in some of the food choices since COVID. It seems like the menus have been trimmed down and all of the quick service locations at the hotels are more similar to each other. Pop and Art now have pretty much the same menu at both places, when it used to be different which was nice if you wanted a change. But...I agree with you, we are at Disney so it's not too bad!

 

[cstorm65]

Day 5 Part 2 - No Line for a Family Favorite Attraction

We took a little time to rest back in the room after lunch. We all rested for about 30 minutes, then Braxton and I went to sit in the lobby while Brooks took a little longer nap. Braxton and I love to do this together. We usually get a snack, use our refillable mugs, and have fun planning what we are going to do in the parks that evening. Braxton also really likes to draw and he got to doing that a bunch in the afternoons while we let Brooks nap. Here are a couple of his things from today

We headed back to the room at about 3:15 and at about 3:45 we got to the Skyliner as we were heading over to Epcot for the evening.

We got over to Epcot at about 4:05 and stopped for some photopass pictures on the way into the park.

I had been checking wait times as we were on the Skyliner and Soarin’, a family favorite of ours, had been showing only a 30 minute wait. Which is pretty good if you’ve been a Disney person over the years. So, we decided to do that if it was still 30 minutes when we got to the park. Well, as we walked to World Showcase and I checked again and it was down to a 20 minute wait. Even better!!

We made it over to Soarin and the 20 minute wait was actually a walk on. I mean we didn’t stop until the merge point, and then after about 30 seconds there we were sent down a hallway and were immediately loaded into the pre-show. It was awesome!

This was actually Brooks’ first time on this ride as he was finally tall enough and he loved it! He kept talking about the golf ball part. Those first time rides for your kids are always great. It is like you are riding it for the first time yourself again.

After Soarin’ we headed over for a ride here:

We made it on the ride with about a 10 minute wait, which was longer than Soarin!

After riding through history it was time to make our way back for one of our favorite restaurants at Disney. Can you guess where?

Up Next: Ok, Who Took My Phone?​

 

[cstorm65]

Day 5 Part 3 - Ok, Who Took My Phone?

If you guess we were having dinner at Via Napoli, you’d be correct! This has been one of our favorites for a while. Today we checked in at 5:30 and were led to a table at 5:35…that was quick! Well, not so fast, literally. We sat at the table until at least 5:50 before anyone said a word to us. At that point a lady brought us some water and told us that our waiter, Matt, would be right with us. Well, Matt finally made it over at about 6:05. We aren’t complainers and so we just made the best of it, but the service here this time was really bad.

Come to find out Disney had not hired back any of the normal workers who were mostly from the country the pavilion represents, so these were all temporary workers. Let’s just say they struggled.

Anyway, we did get some bread service finally, and our pizza also arrived almost an hour after we sat down. We were starving and did not waste anytime diving into our Mezzo Metro size pizza! We always get half Piccante, which is spicy sausage, and half Quattro Formaggi, which is April’s favorite!

They did give us the traditional plate of Mickey shaped parmesan and red pepper flakes.

Overall, the pizza was the same great pizza that had always been here. When the service was bad we hoped the food was still good and thank goodness it was. The pizza was everything we remembered. Braxton was in love!

After a longer than normal meal we finally were full and headed out to work our way back around the World Showcase.

This was really only only main plan tonight as this was kind of a rest day. We were hitting it hard again tomorrow. The boys did stop to pose for some pictures as we walked through Morocco after some light rain.

We got to the International Gateway and everyone agreed ice cream sounded good, so we turned left and decided to make a stop at the new Boardwalk Ice Cream shop.

This place was awesome. I didn’t write down exactly what we got, but I do have pictures.

I know mine had something to do with peanut butter and it was excellent, but I’m a huge fan of peanut butter!

We got on the Skyliner at about 7:50 and headed back towards Pop. After getting off at Pop I couldn’t find my phone. I figured one of the boys had it, but we soon found out it was not with us. I then remembered I sat it on the seat of the Epcot Skyliner.

Well, long story short I was able to track it with April’s phone and I could tell it was moving ever closer to Epcot. Now, find my iPhone is not super accurate to the exact location I found out as the phone appeared in Morocco for a while, then in the UK, then over in Japan, but finally someone answered my phone and someone on the Skyliner picked it up. They were heading into Epcot and left it at guest services for me. So, I got a free Skyliner ride to Epcot while April put the boys in bed, and thankfully a crisis was averted.

Up Next: I Want to Do That Again!​

 

[cstorm65]

Day 6 Part 1 - I Want to Do That Again!

We were up bright and early today after a slow day yesterday because Animal Kingdom was opening at the early time of 8:00 AM. Also, at this time, right after COVID, Disney was posting park opening times, but things would open about 30 minutes ahead of that time without being “official”. So, we wanted to be there so we could do Flight of Passage as these were the days before Genie+ and Lightning Lane.

We got up at 6:00 and were at the bus stop waiting for a bus to Animal Kingdom by 6:30.

Who else has breakfast at the bus stop sometimes?

This was actually one of our longer bus waits of the trip as a bus didn’t come until 6:47 per my notes. So, it was about 7:05 by the time we got loaded up and arrived at Animal Kingdom. We were through security a few minutes later. We got to the gates at 7:10 and they started letting people in at 7:12, so we were just in time!

They let us into the park and we were able to walk all the way over to the bridge that led into Pandora. Once that area filled up they let us into Pandora and a line for Flight of Passage started forming, this was at about 7:25.

The line for the ride was pretty well organized once people got in line, but it was a mess trying to get in line. The line did give a chance for some great pics of the area as it snaked through a lot of the paths in Pandora.

We stood still in line for about five minutes and at 7:35 they opened the actual queue of the ride and the line moved right in. It was pretty smooth at this point since the line was now pretty calm with everyone in those pathways in Pandora. I wish Magic Kingdom would take some lessons from this process at the other parks, but we’ll talk about that more on our MK days. These boys were ready for FoP!

This queue area is so cool. I think we had only ever done this ride with FP+, so it may have been our first time in the standby queue and they put so much work into this to make it interesting. We love that about Disney!

We were into the link chamber at 7:48, pretty good since the park wasn’t officially opening until 8:00, which is about what time we were off the ride.

We started walking over to Asia for our next ride.

The next ride of the morning would be Brooks’ first ride here:

He finally met the height requirement and after many Youtube videos he still said he wanted to ride it. We let him watch the train come down the mountain with people screaming a few times and he still said he wanted to do it, so in we went!

I could tell he was a little nervous in the ride area, not about the ride, but about the Yeti. Luckily it was a walk on, so we didn’t have to stand in any area of the ride long. We made it on the ride and Brooks loved it! You couldn't tell from the ride photo. He wanted his eyes covered because he thought the Yeti was going to get him.

We were looking at our ride photo and he said, “I want to do that again!” Well, it was 8:22 at this point and it was still a walk on so me and the boys went again. April had enough with one ride…she needed a little recovery time. She found a spirit jersey while she was waiting for us! She didn’t really want it, but we agreed it was a pretty cool one if you’re an EE fan!

The boys loved the ride the second time and Braxton thought he was hot stuff since he got to ride by himself! Brooks didn't want his eyes covered this time, thought I think the drop was still a little scary for him as you can see.

When we got of said he loved it again! It had been a great morning so far and it was only about 8:30, what would we get into next?

Up Next: How Much Yogurt Did We Order?​

 

[Paulaparm]

That pizza looks great! I'm pretty sure we tried Via Napoli because of your trip reports! And yes, we love it...a must do each trip

 

[cstorm65]

That pizza looks great! I'm pretty sure we tried Via Napoli because of your trip reports! And yes, we love it...a must do each trip

We love the pizza there! And it is a must do for sure, part of the reason why I think is that it's just easy to order. Instead of having to figure out what we want, see what the kids want off the kids menu or anything like that, we just order the big pizza and all enjoy it. It's tasty and easy!

 

[disneyAndi14]

We love Via Napoli as well. I think we have been there at least 10 times now!
We have had a few times where the service was very slow!

I left my phone on Dinosaur, it fell out of my pocket! I was able to get it back thank goodness!
I can only ride EE once every 5 years That is how long it takes me to recover! The G force on this ride gets me every time. I love the ride until we go backwards than I hate it!

 

[cstorm65]

We love Via Napoli as well. I think we have been there at least 10 times now!
We have had a few times where the service was very slow!

I left my phone on Dinosaur, it fell out of my pocket! I was able to get it back thank goodness!
I can only ride EE once every 5 years That is how long it takes me to recover! The G force on this ride gets me every time. I love the ride until we go backwards than I hate it!

I was so thankful the people who found my phone answered so I didn't have to deal with the lost and found system. I mean Disney is awesome at lost and found, but it would have probably taken a lot longer than it did!

The intensity of Everest on the helix right after the big drop is intense! I get it! haha