Hello all! Amber here. In late July, the kid and I visited Walt Disney World on a mission to try as many new things as possible, in a super short timeframe. Did we succeed? YES! I’m going to turn it over to the kid to report in with the things we tried and her take as a tween.  Here we go!!

Hi! I’m Hailey and today I am going to tell you about all the new things we tried on this past trip. First things first flying, in the middle of summer, and in the afternoon is just asking for a disaster! We had to sit in the airport until about two hours after our original flight time, because of the weather in Orlando. But now to the more important stuff.

Our first park day was at Animal Kingdom. We had so much fun in Pandora, and both the rides were amazing! I would recommend riding Na’vi River Journey, it’s worth it after waiting in the line or using a FastPass for the ride. The food at the Satu’li Canteen was very good. I would recommend the quinoa salad with the black bean vinaigrette, I really enjoyed that. The veggie curry pods I didn’t enjoy as much as the salad, I’m pretty sure that the curry, and the overall texture, was my problem. But if you are a fan of curry and like steamed buns, you would probably like the pods much better than me. If you eat at the Satu’li Canteen you HAVE to try the blueberry cream cheese mousse, it was AMAZING! I think that while it took a long time to wait to ride Na’vi River Journey it would be a lot more worthwhile to save your FastPass for Flight of Passage, if you have any hope of riding it in a fair amount of time. But if traveling to Pandora with younger children, or children who are afraid of thrill rides or heights, it would be of more use to use your FastPass on the Na’vi River Journey ride.

If you like thrill rides or Soarin’, but more action packed, than this is the ride for you! Flight of Passage was an amazing ride! It was a lot less jerky than I thought it would be. It was a nice way to cool off in the hot afternoon. I would recommend Flight of Passage for kids my age, early teens, teens, or adventurous kids who are tall enough, like Soarin’ and are not afraid of heights. While you aren’t off the ground, it simulates you being thousands of feet up.

The Caring for Giants tour was a wonderful tour. I would recommend the Caring for Giants tour for mature eight year olds to nine or ten year olds and up. It was a truly amazing experience, getting to see elephants, just going about their business, kicking up sand to protect them from the sun, living in their natural habitats. It was an fantastic tour.

At Tusker House the buffet was delicious, and extremely vegetarian, which was very good for me and my mom! I think there is absolutely no need to go there for breakfast, when the food served for dinner is delicious. Now that the characters, Daisy, Mickey, Goofy, and Donald, as safari versions, come visit your table with all meals you don’t have to go there for breakfast to see them, you can see them all the time!

For the Rivers of Light show or package, I would recommend arriving around 35-45 minutes before the show starts, in order to get a good seat. I would recommend trying to get a seat in the first row of normal seats, for the best view. I wouldn’t recommend giving your child a freshly refilled bubble wand when every one is all clumped up in one spot, no one likes to be sticky or have bubbles in their Starbucks.

Rivers of Light was a fantastic show! It didn’t need to have fireworks to be an amazing show! It was very nice I enjoyed the projections onto the screen of water, they were beautiful. Also, if you are visiting Animal Kingdom in the night you must visit Pandora! Everything starts glowing and it is beautiful! Just make sure to stay hydrated whether you are visiting Africa or a guest among the sights of the world of Pandora.

I definitely recommend the Amorette’s cake decorating class in Disney Springs for mature nine to ten year olds (and up) who have a passion for baking. For me, as a twelve year old, who loves to bake, I really, really enjoyed the experience and learned a lot about cake decorating. I would definitely try out any of their new cake decorating classes!

In Epcot, I would recommend the Frozen Ever After ride to fans of Frozen and really anyone. But I have to say, I wasn’t expecting a Frozen ride to be so much like Splash Mountain! It was a great ride for cooling off. I also really enjoyed the Behind the Seeds tour, which is where you get to learn more behind the scenes information about The Land, I think it is more geared towards mature nine or ten year olds and up. I think it was a really neat tour and I learned a lot about the plants and fish in The Land.

On the way to Magic Kingdom from Epcot, we tried out the new Express Transportation service. It was very handy, being on a tight schedule, as long as you are there on the dot and ready to board the bus, or else you have to wait a half a hour for the next bus to arrive. It didn’t take nearly as long as the regular bus service, but that’s in the name right? Anyway, I would definitely recommend using the Express Transportation if you are on a tight schedule and park hopping, so you don’t miss your Be Our Guest reservations.

I really enjoyed Tony’s for dinner in Magic Kingdom, and I recommend it for anyone who likes pizza, pasta, and anything Italian of course! I also definitely would recommend the caprese salad there, it is amazing! I also would recommend the Happily Ever After dessert party, there are lots of different sweets there for you to enjoy, and they are wonderful! I really liked the cookies and cream mousse, it was delicious.

The Happily Ever After show was a spectacular show, with fireworks and projections onto Cinderella’s Castle. I think to get the full experience, you have to see the castle, not just the fireworks. I really enjoyed this past trip with my mom, we have tried lots and lots of new things, with a few familiar things among them.

In the future, look for more trip reports from me!

~Hailey