Disney 2021: Our Final Day!

Our final morning at Walt Disney World came before we knew it! Our friends had a later flight, so we planned to spend our morning at the Magic Kingdom with them!

Thankfully, we had Jason's truck available, so we packed the truck with our luggage before heading over to the boats to take us to the MK.

Our first stop at the Magic Kingdom was for Mine Train. We rope dropped, were allowed in the park extra early, then realized the ride was not actually working! Whomp whomp! 

While walking through Fantasyland, we discovered that the Tea Cups were undergoing refurbishment. We were so happy we were able to ride them earlier in the week!

While our friends and Jason rode Space Mountain, Brayden and I took our time walking around Tomorrowland.

We rode Buzz Lightyear, then played with bubbles with this friendly cast member!

I also ran into Shannon from BRB Going to Disney! It was so nice to meet her in person and she's so sweet!

Brayden's next request was for Astro Orbiter. Apparently this is his new favorite ride! Hah!

We also snagged breakfast at Sleepy Hollow one last time! So good!

After breakfast, we saw that Dumbo had an incredibly short wait time and Mine Train was back up and running again! So, we walked that way to ride both! :)

When we got to the front of the line to ride Mine Train, Brayden decided he didn't want to ride. Instead, we rider swapped right there and it worked out perfectly!

The Tangled bathrooms are seriously my fave! :)

Our friends wanted to ride another thrill ride, and I was perfectly ok taking Brayden on Small World by myself, so that's what we did!

I just love his little hand on my leg! These days are passing so fast and this is so precious to me!

We rode Haunted Mansion one last time, then finally the Carousel!

This has been one of Brayden's favorite rides since his very first trip at 10 months old!

We said goodbye to our friends, then made our way over to the Wilderness Lodge to retrieve our truck.

It was bittersweet saying goodbye. While gone, we somehow managed to bypass Winter Storm Uri, spent 8 nights at the most magical place on earth, and had a blast with our friends! Despite the wearing of masks and lack of an official runDisney race, we still had an incredible time. It's truly one for the memory books!

Our 12 hour drive home was incredibly smooth. We were initially going to break the trip in half like we did on our way to Florida, but instead we split the driving time and made it all the way home in one!

Of course we had to make a stop at Brayden's favorite Buc-ees! The Alabama Buc-ees is now affectionately known as the "Disney World Buc-ees"! 

If you've made it this far, thank you for following along in our trip chronicles! We will be returning to the World in less than a week and I can't wait to share more fun times with you. This trip will include a first for us - Blizzard Beach!! Stay tuned to my instagram for lots of footage from our trip! :) 

Have a magical day!

Disney 2021: Animal Kingdom

Our last full day at Disney was spent in the Animal Kingdom. We arrived at rope drop and were able to get into the park pretty early!

Our first stop of the day was at Flight of Passage. Having never ridden this ride without a fast pass, I hadn't yet experienced the full queue line and I was excited to do so!

Seeing the full queue all lit up was really neat and something I'm glad I had a chance to experience, for sure!

After Flight of Passage, we jumped over to the Na'vi River Journey. 

I realize this is incredibly silly, but if you actually pay attention to the surroundings on this ride, you'll notice that the Na'vi are actually going along on the journey "with" you! (Hence the name "Na'vi River Journey"....serious face palm here.) How I missed this before, I'll never know!!

Up next was a ride on Kilimanjaro Safari, while it was still morning and the animals were out and about! 

We saw plenty of giraffes and elephants! It was great as always!

Such a gorgeous day!

As a mid-morning snack, I stopped at a cart near Asia where they offered fried pot stickers. These are my FAVORITE on Disney Cruise Line and were taken off the pirate night menu - I'm still bitter about it. 

 

When I saw a friend on instagram ordered these for herself a few weeks before our trip, I added them to my must do list and they did not disappoint! 

While our friends took a ride on Everest, Brayden and I hung out and enjoyed the atmosphere. 

We did a quick rider swap and somehow ended up on the very FRONT of Everest! This was my second time to ride up front and if you haven't done so before, you need to! It's so much fun!

For lunch, we had the pulled pork mac and cheese from Flame Tree BBQ. This is a favorite of ours and almost always an every-timer! While eating, we also saw a boat pass by with Mickey and Minnie on board! So fun!

After lunch, we walked over towards Dino Land and secured our Annual Pass magnets. We love this cartoon and thought the magnet was so fun!

One of Brayden's favorites in Animal Kingdom is Triceratops spin, so we all hopped on board for a quick ride!

Notice the now-gone Primeval Whirl in the background. I never had a chance to ride it as I tend to shy away from spin-type rides. Rest in peace!

I love how we still had a chance to see characters throughout the park without actually being up close to them.

It's Tough To Be a Bug was up next!

When we excited, we saw a beautiful hidden Mickey made of flower petals on the ground! 

I love the creativity behind this one and saw that Disney recently featured a cast member on their instagram who makes these beautiful icons throughout Animal Kingdom! So fun!

Dinosaur is one of my favorite rides in Animal Kingdom and we decided to make it our last ride of the day! Somehow, we were fully finished with almost every attraction in Animal Kingdom by 2 p.m.! 

Poor Brayden was scared to death! Hah!

Before leaving, we decided to grab a few snacks on the way out. I really wanted a few snacks from Pandora, so we meandered back over in that direction. 

On the way there, we spotted a few friends! 

Jason's favorite is the Night Blossom (I don't care for it as much) and my favorite is the Pongo Lumpia! 

This decadent treat is made with cream cheese and pineapple, wrapped in a flaky crust. SO good!

We also ordered Starbucks on our way out!

Our evening plans included a tour of the Copper Creek cabins at Wilderness Lodge (for our friends to see) as well as a dip in the pool!

This kid should have been born a fish. He would swim all day every day if I let him!

Our beautiful day turned into a beautiful evening.

Brayden LOVED the water slide at the Wilderness Lodge and still talks about it to this very day!

After swimming for a few hours, we returned to our room to change for dinner at Geyser Point.

While waiting, we also had a chance to see the Electric Water Pageant! This brings back such awesome memories of my childhood!

We all ordered the same thing - the bison burger. It was delicious!!

After hanging around the restaurant and enjoying our final evening in Disney, we walked over to Roaring Fork for dessert! :)

Brayden enjoyed a Mickey Bar...

...Jason LOVED this magic cookie bar... (I did taste it and it was amazing!)

...and I had a Mickey ice cream bar as well! Our friends also ordered ice cream! Perfect end to a great trip!!

Back in our room, Brayden played with his bubble machine out on the patio and then we drifted off to sleep with another amazing day in the books! 

Up next: Our final day (1/2 day) at the Magic Kingdom!