Animal Kingdom

Last Saturday afternoon, Jennifer visited Animal Kingdom with a friend. Dinoland is now completely closed, but the frame of the new show building for the future Encanto ride can be seen above the construction walls. 

They mostly went to look at merchandise and have some snacks, so they only stayed for a few hours. On the way out they took photos with Chip and Dale, who liked Jenn's outfit. With Dinoland closed, they no longer meet in their dinosaur costumes, but instead are before the entrance to the park. 

Last Tuesday night, Jenn with with some friends to Tampa to watch a hockey match. The Tampa Bay Lightning lost 5-2 to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Susan and I spent our days off doing chores and running errands, but we did eat out a couple times and swung by Cast Connection to see what new stuff they had. 

Monday morning, Susan and Jenn left for Texas. After staying the night in Monroe Louisiana, they arrived in Fort Worth yesterday afternoon. Last night they attended a book signing at a bookstore in Dallas.

This morning I went into Animal Kingdom at opening. Besides Dinoland, Conservation Station and the train to it are closed for refurbishment. They are scheduled to reopen around Memorial Day with new experiences. I walked the trails and looked at animal habitats, but soon ran out of things to do.

Starlight Parade

Monday morning, Susan got to take a special behind the scenes tour of Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom.

Yesterday afternoon, Susan, Jenn, and I went to Magic Kingdom, mostly to watch the Starlight Parade, the new night parade that debuted last summer. Recently, Disney started repainting the castle. It’s going back to a blue grey from the pink, deep blue, and gold that they painted it for the 50th celebration. 

We had dinner at the Diamond Horseshoe Saloon, which is currently running a great discount for cast members. It had been at least a decade since we had eaten there, and then it just had simple meals. Now it has the same menu as the Liberty Tree Tavern next door, mostly Thanksgiving food served family style. 

After dinner we did a couple of rides, including the Peoplemover. I wanted to see how the refurbishment of Buzz Lightyear was progressing, but we got to see Space Mountain with the lights on.

Guests started lining up around the hub and Main Street an hour before the parade started, so we ended up watching it in front of Emporium near the Fire Station. It’s a fairly good parade, with nine floats - Blue Fairy, Wish, Encanto, Frozen, Princesses, Coco, Moana, Peter Pan, and Mickey and friends.

Milwaukee

Friday morning Jenn and Susan got up very early and flew to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to attend a book signing/hockey event. They flew on Delta, and got upgraded to first class on the leg from Atlanta to Milwaukee. After checking in to their hotel, they headed to the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Panther Stadium, and signed and sold books at an event sponsored by a local bookstore. 

After the book signing, they watched two minor league teams, the Milwaukee Admirals and the Texas Stars, play hockey. In between periods, Jennifer and the other authors got to go down on the ice. 

While the girls were flying, I went into Hollywood Studios. I couldn’t see too much progress over the construction walls at either the old muppet or animation courtyards. 

Yesterday morning Susan and Jennifer checked out of their hotel and visited the bookstore that sponsored the event, then headed to the airport for their flight home.

Moonlight Magic

Last night we attended a DVC Moonlight Magic event at Epcot. When the 2026 Moonlight Magic dates were announced, I booked a two bedroom villa at Saratoga Springs so that I could register the four of us plus some friends. When we arrived at Saratoga in the afternoon our room wasn’t yet ready so we spent an hour or so shopping at Disney Springs until it was. We put our bags in the room and headed to Epcot.

We got to the park about 4 pm and made a lap around the World Showcase and did some shopping in the countries as well as at the Festival of Arts booths. Around 6 PM we were joined by two of Jenn’s friends and picked up our event wristbands and snack coupons and made another trip around the World Showcase to use our snack coupons at the festival food booths.

Once the park closed to regular guests, we enjoyed free ice cream snacks and short waits for rides, although Test Track and Frozen both went down for most of the event. The girls met some characters, and we enjoyed a special fireworks show a little after 11. We watched in front of Norway.

The event ended at 12:30 am, and we left the park shortly thereafter and headed back to our villa. Saratoga had been recently renovated to include a Murphy bed over the couch as well as a small one under the TV although we didn't use them. We checked out and came home this morning.

Festival of Arts

 

This week an author friend of Jennifer’s came to WDW with her family. The flew in Wednesday morning, and in the afternoon Susan and I got them into Epcot to check out the Festival of the Arts. 

On Thursday we went to Magic Kingdom. We did a few rides and hung out in the DVC lounge a bit. I also tried to take some photos of the work being done in the old Rivers of America area. 

On Friday we went to the Studios. Over at the old Muppet Courtyard, there were a couple of workmen in man lifts working on the facades to the old buildings. 

We walked through Galaxy’s Edge, where the Mandalorian and Grogu were out meeting guests. We went on Smuggler’s Run and had lunch at Docking Bay 7. 

Yesterday, while I worked, Jennifer and her friend did a book signing at Barnes and Noble, and Susan took the rest of the family into Animal Kingdom. Jenn also published her 15th book this week. Last night they all went to Boma for dinner. 

Pirate Hockey

After spending Friday at Epcot, Jennifer flew out to Texas, and on Saturday did a book signing with another author at an independent bookstore in Denton, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. 

She stayed with friends, and on Sunday afternoon they went to a hockey match at the American Airlines Center. The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Dallas Stars 4 to 1. She flew home Tuesday night. 

Susan and I were too busy doing chores and running errands last week to do anything fun, but Thursday morning I got to do a special behind the scenes tour of Festival of the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom. Along with about a dozen other cast members, I got to see the floats up close, then watch a show.

Thursday night all four of us drove to Tampa to watch The Lightning beat the Winnipeg Jets 4 to 1. Because the Gasparilla Festival is this weekend, the match was Pirate themed. We got there early to check out the vendor booths and get drinks and snacks at Cigar City Brewery.

Yesterday Jennifer went out to Tampa again, this time to watch the Lightning play the Boston Bruins in a special outdoor match held in the Raymond James stadium. The Lightning came back from behind to win 6 to 5. 

Castaway Cay

Yesterday was the final stop of the cruise, Disney’s private island in the Bahamas, Castaway Cay. Unfortunately the weather was a bit cold, so we didn’t stay long.

Since we were last here, Disney had built more cabanas and a new BBQ area, called Hanger 98, in the adult only area, Serenity Bay. The food wasn’t as good as in the past though. We hung out at the beach a bit after lunch then looked through the couple of shops on way back to the boat. 

Once back on board, we cleaned up and went to a matinee showing of the last Broadway style show, Beauty and the Beast, then watched from our veranda as the ship left the island. We packed up, then had a drink at the Periscope Pub, a bar themed to Captain Nemo’s sub, the Nautilus. Finally we had dinner at 1923. This morning we disembarked and drove home. 

While we were at Castaway Cay Bryan and Jenn checked out the first day of the Festival of Arts at Epcot.