“Narwhals are real?!” January 2020 TR Update 12/31!!

[Gina Starr]

Hi everyone and welcome to my 3rd Trip Report here! I’m Gina and my husband is Donnie. This trip report will tell the story of our 10th trip to Disney World together. We both went as kids in the 90s and our first trip as a couple was in May 2014. We tagged along with my sister and her family and my parents joined. It was not the greatest trip due to poor planning (we didn’t know you could get FP 30 days in advance!) and the fact that the majority of the family was sick at one point or another (I missed our Universal day and had to be pushed around in a wheelchair in Animal Kingdom!) Needless to say, after that trip Donnie and I decided we needed a do-over so we went back just the two of us a year later and the rest is history.



We are high school sweethearts and we have been together for more than half my life. We are childless millennials unless you count our dog, Pepper! He is 5 lbs of pure terror and is 100% our fur baby. We both work at the same place, work the same hours, and even share a desk. Yea, I can guess what you are thinking but we love it. We married each other for a reason and we love spending time together.


(the only picture I have of us from our first trip!)

Some of my hobbies are eating delicious gluten free foods, bargain shopping, watching YouTube, and dying my hair at home then going to a professional to fix it. Donnie enjoys “just looking” at the store, collecting Disney merch, watching vlogs, and enabling my shopping habits.


(I think this is from our second trip!)

We planned last years’ AP to coincide with a January trip this year as our last “big” trip for a while. We stayed January 13-23 at French Quarter and for once we got to stay in the same room the whole trip because we didn’t have a split stay! We love going in January mostly because of the weather. I used to say I liked the low crowds but there’s never low crowds anymore. Some things we were excited for was Rise of the Resistance, Festival of the Arts, and both a tour and a dessert party.



If you want to read more about our trip and find out who said the quote in the TR title, then stick around! ​

 

[lvcourtneyy]

following!

 

[Gina Starr]

Days -2 to 0 January 10th-12th

(These days are photo-less so instead of a wall of text, I will insert some random pictures)



This trip could not come soon enough! We get all of our vacation time at the beginning of the year and with the pattern of long January trips the last several years, we are always out of vacation time anywhere between June and September so by the time January comes, we are chomping at the bit. Our check in date was January 13 which was Monday and we are off Sundays and Mondays so most people would think that’s perfect but we hate working Saturdays so we took that day off too. Then Thursday morning we decided we needed a half day on Friday too! So our vacation started Friday at 1:30 pm! We ran several errands and did some cleaning. On Saturday we dropped Pepper off at my parents’ house and visited my mom in the hospital because she had just had her hip replaced two days prior. (I asked her as soon as she told me her surgery date if I should take Pepper to the boarder we have taken him to before but she insisted she would be fine with him being at their house. They have three dogs and he is so small, they don’t mind him being there) After that we went home and finished packing and packed up the car. We were asleep by 10:30.



Our alarm went off the next day at 4:00 am and we finished packing the last minute things and were on the road at 4:52. We were stopping for the night in Richmond Hill, GA and with no stops our eta was 3:11 pm. I get motion sickness so I took Dramamine and fell asleep for the first several hours while Donnie listened to one of the Harry Potter books on audible. (He drives everywhere. I offer to drive but he says he likes to drive. He likes to be the one in control and I’m fine with sleeping) We only stopped a few times for food, gas, and bathroom breaks. We got to the hotel at 4:30 which was only an hour and 20 minutes after the original time! We had less than 4 hours to get to Disney and briefly considered driving straight there but we didn’t have a room and we were both already tired! Donnie got McDonalds and I had packed a sandwich from home in our cooler since it’s harder for me to find safe foods on the road and we ate in the room while we watched the new Aladdin on Disney+ on our fire stick. After the movie we decided to re-start Parks and Rec for the third time (just finished the series again the other night) since Netflix got rid of Friends. Donnie was asleep by 10:30 but thanks to my anxiety I was up til 2:30 am. ​

 

[Gina Starr]

Day 1 January 13

We had the alarm set for 6 am and if you remember I didn’t fall asleep til 2:30. Luckily, I take Dramamine for motion sickness and it’s guaranteed to knock me out within about 10 minutes of driving! The hotel had a continental breakfast and Donnie grabbed some sort of breakfast bowl thing and I ate some snacks I brought from home. We were on the road at 7:22 with an eta of 11:21.



For some reason the Dramamine didn’t make me sleepy so I didn’t fall asleep. At 10:30 I got a text from Disney and got all excited but all they said was that my room wasn’t ready! Since I wasn’t sleeping in the car, I kept checking the app. And it kept saying “show room number” and “unlock door” so I kept thinking we got our room. But then I’d tap on show room number and it would say it wasn’t ready yet. When were like ten minutes away we finally got our room number.



We were in building 4. Yay! Second floor. Boo! We like the first floor just cause the last thing I wanna do at the end of a long day is walk up steps or walk to the end of a hall to get an elevator. We looked at a map and it actually looked like a great location, super close to the lobby/transportation so I didn’t mind the steps. Then we got a message that there’s something wrong with our room and to visit the front desk. The cm said possibly our magic bands weren’t linked properly so we gave her the ones we were wearing and we thought we were all good. (Several days later we realized Donnie wasn’t wearing the new one he got and it didn’t work but he has like 7 magic bands so no big deal) We also bought our refillable mugs because with a 10 day trip, it’s a really good deal! Donnie was excited to see they had the special Star Wars one. I just got a regular one with a pink lid. We went back to the room and unpacked. On long trips we fully unpack and use the drawers, I can’t imagine living out of a suitcase for 10 days.



We were ready to get to a park around 1 and the app said an MK bus was coming at 1:03 so we huffed it to the bus stop which was pretty close. We were both pretty hungry and our ADR was at 4:00 so I moved that up to 2:00 on the bus. We got to the park around 1:20 and had a FP to get to already. It was for our favorite! Haunted Mansion- you know you are getting old when your back cracks when you are going backwards downhill. We will eventually figure out where the camera is! (Donnie did on our last ride through so next trip we will have pictures actually looking in the right area)



After that we checked in for our ADR at Skipper Canteen. We were ten minutes early but they texted us almost immediately! This is a favorite of ours. Unfortunately our server wasn’t super into the shtick (a recurring thing through the trip) but the food was yummy! I got the tastes like chicken and Donnie got the steak salad. I don’t like the chili glaze it comes with and a previous server offered sweet and sour sauce that comes with kids meals so I get it with that all the time now. I was full and had some left so Donnie tasted it and declared he would be getting that from now on!




(Donnie’s pictures from his phone are way better. Her has the iPhone 11 Pro and actually knows how to take a good picture. I have the iPhone 11 and just point my phone in a direction and tap the button so my pictures usually aren’t great.)

Once we were done with lunch, it was time for our Peter Pan FP. While in line I decided I wanted to stay around Fantasyland so we changed our third FP from Buzz to Small World. (Start rant) This was my first experience with the updated app and changing/making FP. Donnie made all of our FP at day 60 and I just never looked at it before. I will just say it- the app totally sucks now. You can only change the time or the experience, you can’t look for both a new time and a new attraction at the same time. You also can only “refresh” by the hour, not half hour. So from here on out, I just used the website through the browser on my phone and it looked more like the old app and I was able to get all sorts of good stuff through the week this way! (End rant)

One of the things I did the previous night while I was awake with anxiety was fall down a hole on Reddit. I was looking at Disney stuff and came across a story by a Disney security guard about a family who disappeared. It’s getting scarier and scarier as I read it, then I noticed the story was posted to a “scary story” subreddit but it still scared me enough that I was a little worried to ride it. I told Donnie about it and he kept joking with me and we luckily made it out of Small World to make it to our next FP for Winnie the Pooh. After tapping for Pooh, I got another FP for Little Mermaid but we decided to take a pit stop at Gastons Tavern to get a LeFou’s Brew. I don’t know why I keep trying this, every time I do I say I don’t like it. This time it had some weird red liquid in it and I looked around and no one else’s looked like that. Donnie said it tasted like it always does, though.





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[Gina Starr]

After Little Mermaid, we got another FP for Dumbo and the FP line took foreverrrrr. But it was a fun little ride. We checked out Big Top Souvenirs and I eyed up the lavender and mint magic bands but decided I didn’t need one. Then we naturally made our way to Tomorrowland and what does one do in Tomorrowland on their first day in Disney? If you guessed Space Mountain, you must not know us! Peoplemover- duh! And then Carousel of Progress. The first scene seemed a little weird, there was no music at the end and a few of the sound effects weren’t working. But that didn’t change our love for it. Next we got another Buzz FP cause they hand those things out like DVC CMs hand out stickers. The line was routed weirdly this time? I did terrible, like the worst I have ever done. Oh well!


(I do have pictures of Donnie on Dumbo but it was sunny and he’s making a funny face so I will be nice and not share them)




(I guess we got stopped here with the lights on?)







At this point we were getting tired, the lack of sleep was catching up to me. We still wanted to get to Disney Springs plus we had an early wake up call the next day so we made our way out of MK, but not before getting some pics in front of the train station.



We were at the bus stop at MK at 6:15 and back to the Disney Springs bus stop by 7:10 with a ridiculous amount of Erin McKennas in hand. I wasn’t hungry but Donnie was so he mobile ordered something. It took like 20 minutes and the manager gave him a refund because he felt bad. We used the massage chairs (we <3 massage chairs) and went to bed with our alarms set for 5:00 am. Where were we going the next day? ​

 

[Gina Starr]

Extra Day 1 Photos!
















Coming Soon: Day 2​

 

[Gina Starr]

following!

Thanks for following!​

 

[missangelalexis]

Joining in!!! Can't wait to hear about it

 

[disneyAndi14]

Joining in! Excited to hear about your trip since we were there at the same time. I’m surprised we didn’t see each other!
I got the same Star Wars refillable mug, I love it!

 

[Gina Starr]

Joining in!!! Can't wait to hear about it

Hi! Thanks for being here!

Joining in! Excited to hear about your trip since we were there at the same time. I’m surprised we didn’t see each other!
I got the same Star Wars refillable mug, I love it!

Thanks for joining in! He loved the mug for refilling purposes but he bought the big baby Yoda one and uses that one every day!

 

[Raeven]

Following along!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Next we got another Buzz FP cause they hand those things out like DVC CMs hand out stickers.

This is so accurate

 

[DLo]

Following along! Looking forward to reading more. Great start

 

[Gina Starr]

Following along!

Hi!

Following along! Looking forward to reading more. Great start

Thanks for joining in!

 

[Gina Starr]

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well. I really don’t know what to say about what’s going on. It’s all pretty scary and while it feels weird to do pretty much any normal activity, I have enjoyed reading other TRs and want to continue with mine. Thank you so much to everyone in healthcare and to all the workers out there who are keeping the country afloat! Donnie and I are considered essential and are not able to work from home- we work in telecommunications in an office setting and are required to show up everyday. The company did give parents and everyone in the “high risk” category four weeks paid time off but we don’t fall into either of those categories. We usually have 100 employees in the building and we have been averaging 20-30 each day so we have been very busy. Hope everyone stays safe! Back to January...

Day 2 January 14

Our alarm went off at 5:00 am so we could get to Hollywood Studios for the 7:00 am opening. So this wasn’t originally our plan but we had done our research and didn’t want to wait til the later part of our trip to try for Rise of the Resistance in case we couldn’t get a boarding pass. We kinda took our time and were leaving the room at 6:10. We decided to drive to HS on the days we were trying for ROTR so we could be in complete control of what time we got there.



What we didn’t consider was bag check. Ughhhh. We got in line for bag check at 6:30 and didn’t get through til 6:50! We always pick the wrong line. The first security guard was taking forever so when we saw they got switched out we were happy til we saw the next one looking in every single nook and cranny. Donnie was freaking out. I was calm because like I said, we had a long trip and many more opportunities.





We were able to get into the park with time to spare and walked around doing speed tests in different places and tried it with WiFi and without WiFi. DON’T use the WiFi if you can help it. It was so slow! We stayed at the end of Hollywood Boulevard because we really didn’t plan on rope dropping any ride.



I kinda thought we’d get a late boarding pass and would just come back later. (Humble brag/story: The idea of “refreshing” the app/website to get a boarding pass isn’t a new concept for us so we had kind of a leg up on the competition. At work, when we are slow and they are sending people home, they do it through a first come, first serve system. It’s done through an app and it goes so quickly if you don’t refresh and get on it right away, you aren’t leaving early. So we have had years of practice.) We ended up getting boarding group 19 which we were pretty pleased with.



Since it seemed like we were going to get called pretty soon we stuck around and decided to head to Toy Story Land. Slinky Dog Dash was already like 90 minutes but Toy Story Mania was only 10 minutes, which was more like a walk on.




(That was Donnie- definitely not me!)

Once we got off the ride it was about 7:45 and they still didn’t start calling any boarding groups! We decide to get a drink and went with a blue and green milk. We just sat and relaxed since we really had no other plans. It wasn’t even 8:00 am and my hair was already a frizz ball so I put my hat on.

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[Gina Starr]

We were really struggling with what to do. All the ride lines were 45 minutes at the least! Smugglers Run and SDD were like 90+ minutes. None of the shows started until at least 10:30. We started leaving the park at 8:50 because they STILL weren’t calling boarding groups yet and at 8:52 I got the notification that our boarding group was called. Hey, at least we hadn’t actually left yet! We finally checked in for the ride a little after 9.







We don’t care too much about spoilers so had watched full ride through videos and it was amazing! There’s nothing like experiencing it for yourself! I won’t give anything away in case you don’t like spoilers but it was definitely worth the 5:00 am wake up call!









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[Gina Starr]

Once we were done, we headed to our originally planned park of the day- Animal Kingdom. Since we had our car we just drove over. I didn’t realize it was so close! Literally 5 minutes from leaving HS to parking at AK! We got there around 10:00 but since the parking area is under construction it took forever to actually get into the park.



We were hungry for lunch! It wasn’t even 10:30 but we had been awake for five and a half hours at this point. We naturally went to Satu’li Canteen but they didn’t open til 10:30. There was already a line of people waiting to get in and it was opening in about 5-10 minutes so we waited. While everyone went to the right, we went to the left to pick up mobile order. They did this little opening ceremony thing that was cute and our mobile order was almost ready before anyone else even ordered. We both got beef bowls. I used to get the chicken but I feel like the chicken they use for these dishes are always hit or miss, it’s usually pretty fatty/chewy so I changed to beef and haven’t looked back!


(Donnie gets the beef with noodles and his picture was prettier than mine. I get the potato hash. Yum!)

After lunch we went back to the safari. It was a decent safari and while on it, I was refreshing for other FP. We had Navi River Journey for much later in the day and it was around 11:30 and we really didn’t want to be at AK all day. I got us Flight of Passage for 12:00! Woohoo! Immediately after getting off the safari we went back to Pandora and used our FOP FP. Amazing ride as always! It was getting hot so we decided to stop at Nomad Lounge. There was one dirty but empty table outside and since it was hot we went inside to see if there was anything available. There of course wasn’t and by the time we got back outside someone else took the only empty table. I was a little upset but I wasn’t about to stand there and wait so we just left. The thermometer in the car said it was 88 degrees!

Once we got back to French Quarter I decided to get some beignets. I didn’t realize they moved them so I went up to where you normally order them and felt a little stupid when the CM semi-rudely told me they don’t serve them there anymore. I actually like that they are in Scat Cats Lounge now but unfortunately the gluten free ones just aren’t that great anymore. This was the only time I got them the whole trip.



We were tired and hot so decided to splurge and did 25 minutes in the massage chair! Then we went back to the room and relaxed. I love relaxing but Donnie feels like we need to be doing stuff constantly so we decided to swim. Like I said, it was pretty hot out but since we had been in ac for a while I wasn’t really hot anymore. And the water was cold! We were in the pool for maybe 15 minutes before we got out and went back to the room. It was at this time I decided we needed to make a trip to get me some different pants. I packed several pairs but I must have gained some weight cause they fit but just weren’t comfortable. We looked up where a JCPenney was because I know exactly what fits from there and I would just have to run in and get one size up. It took about an hour and a half to drive there, shop, and get back. We were pretty tired with yet another early morning tomorrow so decided to do dinner at Boatwrights at Riverside. We got to our ADR around 6:30 and were seated immediately. I ordered French onion soup and Donnie got the all you care to enjoy skillet. Since our food was all pre-prepared our food came out within 3 minutes of placing the order. Which worked perfectly cause we were hungry! We both got the creme brûlée for dessert and it was a special chocolate one. Yummmm. We said we would have to go back just for dessert (we never did).


(I got gluten free rolls! Not amazing, but they were perfect for soup dipping)




We went back to the room and were asleep by 8:30. (Side story: I have been wanting to try a weighted blanket as I have read they really help with anxiety. I was nervous to try it at home because Pepper sleeps with us and is less than 5 pounds! He likes to cuddle right up against me sometimes. I got a 15 lb blanket and since we drove, we just shoved it in one of our suitcases. OMG! It really does work. Any night I slept with it this trip, I was out almost immediately. I wish I used it the first night I was up til 2:30. It does get pretty warm under there though, but definitely worth it.)

Coming up: Day 3!​

 

[disneyAndi14]

Awesome boarding group number, Andi figured out the no refresh after our first time and it got us low numbers!

It is hard to find things to do before the Rise, everything ends up with long waits very quickly!

We always hung out at TSL entrance and rode TSM each time!

I have never been able to get an extra FP for FoP and I try all the time, any hints?

My husband started working from home today and he hates it, haha
He is super social and misses his office, he knows it is important for now and it will hopefully be temporary!

 

[Penmac]

Hi Using some of my social distancing time to read trip reports. I’m really missing WDW in these uncertain times! Looking forward to reading more.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Donnie and I are considered essential and are not able to work from home- we work in telecommunications in an office setting and are required to show up everyday.

Hope you are both safe and healthy!

All the ride lines were 45 minutes at the least! Smugglers Run and SDD were like 90+ minutes. None of the shows started until at least 10:30

Oh man that's frustrating. Definitely seems to be one of the down sides of the boarding pass procedure.

They did this little opening ceremony thing that was cute and our mobile order was almost ready before anyone else even ordered.

So smart!

OMG! It really does work. Any night I slept with it this trip, I was out almost immediately. I wish I used it the first night I was up til 2:30. It does get pretty warm under there though, but definitely worth it.

Oo I've wanted to try a weighted blanket but I hate being hot when I sleep.