Fifes Do Disney // 2020 — The Fife Life

Even as I’m typing this, I can’t believe it - this is the FOURTH Disney post that I am about to create. As someone who didn’t go to Disney as a kid this is craziness to me! But ever since we first saw the magic on our kids faces back in 2014, we knew we were hooked, and officially one of those “Disney Families”.

You can view our other trips from 2016, and 2017 by clicking on the links. 2016 even came with a separate video post which you can find here.

This year was really exciting as there was so many more new attractions with Toy Story Land and Star Wars World.

Without further ado - Lets get a move on to the HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!!!

Day 1

Per usual we booked the earliest flight we could find. We typically stay for three nights, which we’ve found is the perfect duration for our family, but we like to make sure to get there with time to utilize the first day. We made it to the park just in time for some lunch and headed over to Frontier Land for the first rides of the day.

As soon as we got into Frontier Land Holden insistently kept pointing to Splash Mountain which was unfortunately closed for repairs….

Turns out Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was a suitable replacement for first ride of the day.

This was our first year to experience the Haunted Mansion. Every other year Isla was too scared. She conquered a lot of “Disney Fears” on this trip!

It’s official-I still don’t like the teacups…

After three previous trips and attempts at Dinner at Belle’s castle we FINALLY got in for a late dinner on our first night.

As you can see we’re ALL ready for bed. It was worth it though! Dinner was delicious and very enchanting!

We ended up staying later than we’ve ever stayed in the park. By the time dinner was over all the other park attendees were watching the end-of-night castle show, so we had a special little part of Magic Kingdom all to ourselves. It really was pretty magical.

Day 2

On Day 2 we woke up super early and headed over to Hollywood studios to attempt to cement our place in the queue for the new Star Wars attraction. The way it works is you join a virtual queue and then you’ll receive notice when it’s your turn to board the attraction. Problem is, they can only allow so many people to enter a day, and as you can imagine - its a very popular experience. We arrived early and were one of the first 100 people in the park before it actually opened.

photographic evidence of just how early it really was…. still dark out, puffy eyes…

This didn’t help much because the virtual queue wouldn’t allow you to get in line until actual opening time at which point everyone standing next to you would jump on their phone and try to be the first in line. We were able to secure a spot with a boarding time estimated sometime around midday so we were ecstatic. It was a pretty surreal scene as everyone simultaneously looked down at their phones and intermittently cheered when they found out their boarding positions or in some cases walked away dejected if they were one of the unlucky slow ones who didn’t make the cut.

It turns out there were some perks to getting there early and securing our space in line. We were one of the first guests into Toy Story Land and got to walk straight onto Slinky Dog Dash TWICE thanks to our disability pass.

This ride is SO much fun, and easily became one of our favorites.

Of course it wouldn’t be a trip to Hollywood Studios without a meal at Hollywood and Vine.

And then it was time to experience Star Wars - Galaxy’s Edge

Honestly, I’ve never been into these movies - in fact I couldn’t even get through the first one, but even as a non-fan this attraction was simply amazing. You legitimately feel as though you’ve been transported to a new world.

Of course we had to try the drink of choice, which I’m told is a Star Wars thing… We opted for the blue milk over the green and I have to say it was delicious!

We ended up riding both Star Wars Millenium Falcon and Rise of the Resistance. Millennium Falcon is like an interactive avatar ride which Holden LOVED. We weren’t sure if he was going to participate in the steering and pushing buttons, etc… but he surprised us and was actually much better as an engineer than Isla was as a pilot - LOL!!! Rise of the Resistance had a snafu our first time around and we had to depart the ride only to be told to stand by for them to assess the issue.

We were disappointed, but once we experienced the ride it was clear as to why there are sometimes issues. its a truly immersive and ground breaking attraction. I truly felt like I was in a movie. No matter the obstacles, make SURE you include this as part of your next Disney trip.

We ended the day with more Toy Story Land fun and of course more pins…

Day 3

Our Final day began at Animal Kingdom which was right down the road since we were staying at the Animal Kingdom resort this time around. We arrived at the park early to take advantage of our Magic Hours (these come from staying on a Disney resort property and give you early/late access to the parks).

Our plan was to immediately head over to Avatar, put a disability pass in for that and then go ride Everest a couple times before heading back. Unfortunately Everest was down for repairs for a couple hours that morning so we ended up riding the two rides in Dino Land about 5 times in a row before it was time to head back to Avatar.

Avatar never disappoints and this year was no exception. After our thrills we headed over to Jamba House for our character breakfast.

This was our first time at Jamba House and I have to say it was by far my favorite breakfast at Disney by far. There was so much variety and diversity. I think I went back three times to fill my plate.

After breakfast we headed to put our disability pass in at Everest which was back up and running. While we waited for our turn we explored… AND ate some more around AK…

Finally it was time for Everest!

In the second photo take a guess sat what was happening… I bet you didn’t guess Holden was about to start dumping someones whole bucket of popcorn… (face slap)

Isla actually doesn’t go on Everest as she’s too scared… But she did promise to ride Rock’n Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios before we left, so we didn’t make too big of a deal about it.

Everest is one of Holden’s favorites, so Jordan and I both took turns taking him on it with the rider pass we got from Isla not wanting to go.

After Everest we hopped on the bus and made our way over to Hollywood Studios for the last half of our day.

Holden and Jordan LOVE Tower of Terror, but Isla and I not so much…I told her I’d go if she wanted to, but she decided to sit this one out.

While we were waiting on the boys something truly magical happened, especially in the eyes of my Disney loving princess. Gates that we have never seen open, and I assumed were just for behind the scenes things suddenly opened and a barrage of characters started running up to the small group of us gathered and waiting outside the ride.

We later found out that they were characters in training. It was such a special surprise and 100% the highlight of her trip. well, that and overcoming her fear of Rock’n Rollercoaster (see below).

Of course no trip to Hollywood Studios would be complete without one of Islas favorites-Muppet Theater.

And no trip would be complete for Jordan without at least attempting to high-five Chewy.

And finally, the moment we all came here for - hilariously terrified photos of us riding the rollercoasters ;)

SHE DID IT!!!! And then she legit wouldn’t stop talking about how she did it and how much she loved it-LOL!!!!

Per usual it was a magically frenetic, wonderful, exhausting and unforgettable trip. We can’t wait for the next one! Which needs to be soon, because as I stated above, we are one of those “Disney Families” ;)

One of the funnier moments of the trip came on the plane ride home when a woman had Isla hold her support dog for the majority of the trip.