Wot no Disney - Well just a smidgeon - July 2018 mainly offsite trip report - Day 5 - The Disney Bit

[Rescuer]

Saturday 7th July – And Now For The Disney Bit…

The index is here

Super excited for our Disney After Hours today.

We added this on then decided to add on a night at Art of Animation as we enjoyed staying there last year for a couple of days. I really wanted a MK resort but too pricey and by the time I thought about renting points availability wasn't good so AOA was the next best option without breaking the bank.

First thing, somewhere new and different for breakfast. We wanted it to be walkable rather than waiting on the trolley as we wanted to watch the football. So we settled on Friendly's. I joined the E-club and it was offering 25% but wanted you to print the voucher.

Our server was lovely and just asked to see the voucher on the phone and told us to use it as many times as we wanted during our stay.

Ds had the kids French toast breakfast and a strawberry milkshake.

Dh had the meat lovers omelette and a strawberry milkshake.

I had the cinnamon bun pancakes and a coffee.

All the food was delicious, and the portion sizes were smaller but just right.

And cheap as chips even after leaving a good tip.

We walked back down i-drive stopping in one of the big shops full of everything and Ds bought himself a Harry Potter bag, note this was the second potential school bag he bought, he must take after me. He insisted on wearing it down the road.

Our room had been made up when we got back so I took the opportunity to take a photo while it looked tidy for once.

We watched some of the football and I got an update with our room details.

We requested an Uber ($13) to AOA and headed to check in to pick up our magic bands and request a late check out. We were checked in by 12.30pm.

I love the check in area at AOA there is not much about this resort that I don’t like. The hotel shop had the Rose Gold ears which I was keen to add to my collection so life was grand!

Our room was in the Little Mermaid section, in building 8 which is the furthest away, it’s still not that bad, we had a lovely stroll across.

The rooms are small but I really like the way they are decorated and they have everything you need.

My only slight complaint which was not really a complaint at all was that there was no shower gel, just the soap and I had not thought to bring any.

I had heard some people complaining about noise with construction, but we didn’t hear a thing.

The Big Blue pool here is awesome so the plan was for a bit of swim time. I didn’t take the camera out so I have no photos. We had a great time though swimming around and playing volleyball.

After we walked over to Landscapes of Flavour, I really like this food court. We shared the create your own pasta. Alfredo with shrimp, spinach and mushroom. It was superb, I think this is one of the best value quick service options Disney does. We also had a bacon cheeseburger and 2 bottles of juice. It would be enough to keep us going and it was $35 so not too bad.

Back to the room for a power nap.

When we were ready to go out the weather was mental so we used the lion king corridor as a sheltered short cut.

We left about 6.45pm, there had been reports of people getting in around that time but we felt it was more important to let Ds have a nap so he could last later.

A bus arrived just after we got to the stop and we were all pretty excited for our little bit of Disney, despite the fact the weather was horrible. It was about 7.20pm when we arrived. We got checked in really quickly with our lanyards and off we went in the pouring rain.

As we were staying onsite and had an After Hours ticket we were able to book 3 fastpasses before the event started which was great.

The first one was for Space Mountain at 6.30pm, it had a 105 minute line and we were a bit disappointed to see the fast pass line all the way out in the pouring rain. It didn’t take too long though with fp and we were out again by 8pm. I did miss the fact that we didn’t have photopass like we were used to.

At least the rain was off a bit now. A few snaps in front of the castle, always emotional!

We then headed round to our second fastpass, Splash at 7.30pm which had a 30 minute line and was very quick with fastpass. The whole area around there was still really busy, a combination of the After Hours crowd and the general crowds on a Saturday.

We were off Splash by 8.30pm which was perfect timing for our final fastpass, the coveted Mine Train at 8.40pm, no idea how I managed to grab this for a one night stay at a perfect time for us, on the ride by 9pm. It was great to have covered 3 of our favourites before the event even started.

Luckily we grabbed a good spot for Happily Ever After with a pretzel and a churro (healthy), about a minute or so before it started. I didn’t take any photos this time as we would only get to see it once and I wanted to really enjoy it. It always makes me shed a wee happy tear. I often put it on youtube after school when I’m staying late.

No photopass so no Rapunzel lantern picture so we took our own rubbish one outside my favourite Disney bathrooms.

We were going to do Haunted Mansion but changed our mind and went for Philharmagic instead as we had missed it last year and we all love it. When we came out it was 10.10pm so the After Hours Event had started.

Surprisingly 7D was down, I wasn’t quite sure if this was to discourage people joining the line just before close so we just kept walking and started off with Winnie the Pooh which was walk on.

5 minutes later we were on the Teacups, again walk on and we had one each.

We grabbed a couple of bottles of juice from one of the food carts, the weather was perfect now, T-shirt weather but not too humid after the rain.

Next up Buzz Lightyear, again walk on, we did it twice, it would have been rude not too. Second time we had a vehicle each. We were just 40 minutes into the event now.

The castle kept changing colour and we stopped again to get some popcorn and some more drinks as we crossed over the hub. I’d taken some ziplock bags so we could decant the popcorn for going on rides.

Then on to Jungle cruise where we had a boat to ourselves which was hilarious. Flying carpets next and then Pirates. Still only 11.10pm. I have to say sometimes you hardly saw a soul and every single cast member you past was cheery and chatty, it was lovely to experience MK like this.

More snacks were in order, fruit bars and the chocolate nutty bananas.

Thunder Mountain in the dark, I love this ride at night, it always seems so much wilder. We rode it twice with pretty much no wait.

We skipped Haunted Mansion as we felt it would take too long and walked back round to 7d. I wish we had skipped it, it was the only wait of the night, it posted 10 minutes but was more like 20 as they were having problems with it. If we’d known I wouldn’t have bothered waiting as we’d done it earlier. By the time we got off it was saying 25 minutes and the line was well out the door.

Peter Pan was walk on and it was now 12.20pm, we carried on round to Dumbo and picked up some drinks to go in the bag for the room before the stalls closed as well as some pop corn.

There was half an hour left and we decided to finish off with our favourite, Buzz light year - 4 times without even having to get off, my highest score.

We took some photos of a fairly empty Main Street before we left around 1.30.

There was a bus arrived for pop/ art of animation as we arrived at the bus stop and we wandered through art of animation taking photos of the empty resort and got to bed at around 2.30am.

An amazing night and well worth the cost.

Steps till midnight – 21k
Highlights – For all of us was just Disney After Hours in general!

[mick]

How nice to get so many rides done in a reasonably quiet park


Joan

[Ivegottadream]

That sounds like a brilliant night!
I love the photo of your boys looking back at the castle 😍

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by mick

How nice to get so many rides done in a reasonably quiet park


Joan

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It was great. It was well worth the cost since we were only doing the one Disney day.

Originally Posted by Ivegottadream

That sounds like a brilliant night!
I love the photo of your boys looking back at the castle 😍

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We had a fabulous time. Aww thanks, I always take way too photos.

[disneypars]

The after hours event is brilliant. Eat your own body weight in Mickey bars and a leave with a full rucksack of drinks and snacks.

So glad you enjoyed it.

[Taffy1959]

What a great night and a good way to get a Disney fix

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by disneypars

The after hours event is brilliant. Eat your own body weight in Mickey bars and a leave with a full rucksack of drinks and snacks.

So glad you enjoyed it.

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Totally, ds always has the rucksack for these kind of events I adore MK for late nights, wonder what the future will hold in terms parties and events with no more night time extra magic hours.

Originally Posted by Taffy1959

What a great night and a good way to get a Disney fix

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It was fantastic and just what we needed, I'd do something like that again especially if offsite.

[Sparksy72]

What amnesty amazing day. I love AOA and the theming around the pool and hotel is awesome. The gold ears look fab on you too!

That after hours event was well worth the money - you achieved so much. I think I would have needed an afternoon nap before that too. Got to love a Disney day.

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Sparksy72

What amnesty amazing day. I love AOA and the theming around the pool and hotel is awesome. The gold ears look fab on you too!

That after hours event was well worth the money - you achieved so much. I think I would have needed an afternoon nap before that too. Got to love a Disney day.

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It is such a colourful resort, so Disney. It would be a good choice for us for trips if free dining never comes back. We did a night at Pop at Easter 2019, I liked their rooms but as a resort AOA is the value for me.

Great to have a wee Disney fix, I wonder moving forward if they will have more of this kind of thing now they have shelved emh.

[OB1LukeLucas]

The most perfect dose of Disney, the after hours certainly seemed worth it. I do love AOA, the resort is perfect for a Disney fix I know a MK hotel would have been good for location but I think you can’t bet the theming and the food court at AOA for some extra Disney fun when you are staying offsite. I also love the feeling of leaving MK late at night and returning to a peaceful resort, it reminds me so much of our MNSSHP Disney fix trips