15 Days With My Sweetheart

[Cindylieu]

Day 8: REST (No, really....we did rest today...a bit)

0730 up and laundry.....and tendonitis
Walked 1.5 miles to coffee and pin-trade during laundry. Met up with Ray to finish the drying and folding. Found a bag of snacks and sunscreen left in the laundry room for the taking. Ate pop tarts and apple sauce for breakfast.
0930- shower and dress in nice, clean clothes
1100 off on adventures
resort touring via bus and Skyliner.
Bus to Epcot and then Riviera, ate a snack of fries on the "waterfront".
Skyliner to Hollywood Studios.

1230 Bus to AKL for Sanaa
Explored Jambo and Kidani
1400 PERFECT window seat at Santa with bread service and bowls of food to share
Zebras just outside our windows.

1540 to MK to catch big ferry and see where it takes us
Over to TTC and took monorail to Grand Flo and then Contempo
1740 Friendship Boat to Wilderness Lodge- gorgeous evening for a boat ride on the lake
1800 headed back to hotel via bus exchanges
1900 back to room after pin-trading (VERY successful today!) and beverage filling.

1937 relaxing in bed after Epcot strategy session for tomorrow (hint- no plans for Genie+)

Night night

15,900 steps
6.4 miles on our day of rest (ha ha!)

 

[Cindylieu]

 

[Cindylieu]

 

[Cindylieu]

Day 9: Epcot without Genie+

After our first day at Epcot, we realized that there are only a few rides that really require Genie plus, and we did those on day one. We felt like it would be a waste of money to buy genie plus again for this park. Truth! We would not have needed it.

Up at 0600 for 0715 bus

0825 rope drop (plans CHANGED when we found ourselves at the head of the line at rope drop. Ray agreed to sprint to Remi's instead of rope dropping Soarin'. Legs BURNING, we made it from Soarin to Remi's in 10 min and got in a continuously moving line)
0835 in SB line for Remi's (35 min posted wt)
With sweet family of three gen girls. First time through
0905 on ride- off 0915
Our wait 30min.

Rain and light crowds so far. 65⁰
This was the only day we used our ponchos. By the time we got them on, the rain was almost over.

0920 Meander back to Soarin.
0940 in SB line (25 posted) 0955 in seat 1c, close to b, on inside of the ride vehicle.

1015 caballeros walk on (fun, restful, nostalgic)
(Started exploring the World Showcase today)
1030 rest our feet and wait for Craftsman's Courtyard - beef sammi and pork open face (yum! 1100-1120)

1121 guardians VQ (called just minutes before we arrived there)
Off at 1158
Disco inferno
Could absorb the ride this time!!

Back to world showcase, starting on Mexico (beginning Snack Around the World)

Side stop!!
1205 test track SR (posted 80min wait)
Off ride at 1227 (22 min total time)

1242 Donald Duck in a sombrero pic together (so sweet!)

1300 Norway church
1315 Kringle Bakery (got skool bread, lafka, caramel apelkake- all good! I liked skool best, ray liked apelkake)
1415 Spice Road Table (sharing)- sampler with chicken, cheesy bread, And lamb meatballs. Couscous bowl with veggies, dessert plate with baklava, almond cookie (so yum!), and spiced cake with sugar syrup. All great! All shared.

1530 Morocco pavilion (most of the shops are closed)- love the mosaics. So wish Disney would get it all up and running again!

1630 to amphitheatre
1730 Disney on Broadway: for festival of the arts, Disney has current and former Broadway performers come in and perform at the amphitheater in Epcot. We really enjoyed the concert that we watched.
Ashley Brown- Mary Poppins' Mary
L. Steven Taylor- current Lion King's Mufasa

Getting so chilly and my jacket is not warm!!

1800 to America for American Adventure

1830 Waygu buns and walk out
Maple corn from Canada

Hotel at 2000

7.8 miles/19600 steps
5 rid
es/2 shows/many snacks!
(4 lands explored so far)

 

[Cindylieu]

 

[Cindylieu]

 

[Cindylieu]

Day 10: Animal Kingdom with no Genie+
Kali and Everest down all day

Up at 5am for 6:15am bus stop
0620 on first AK bus
0645 through security

0715 speedwalked through Oasis and Discovery Island. Feet burning!
0720 waiting at rope at Oasis for Pandora Walk
0723 walking.
0727 at SB entrance and walking (off at 0800)

Once again, we were first up for flight of passage and thoroughly enjoyed that. One! Is one of my favorite rides in Animal Kingdom, and I'm really glad that we rope dropped each day that we were here.

0805 Safari line (20min posted wait) 0819 on truck (14 min wait)
It was really cool to do Safari first thing in the morning. The animals truly were much more active first thing.
**Heard male lion roar several times as he came out on exhibit!
**Painted dogs eating bones

Our second time around for safari took a lot longer! And the animals were already dozing in the sun by the time we were riding through the park.
0840 back in Safari line (45 min posted) 0946 on ride (66 min wait
1010 off- glad we went!! More animals out and more active.
**5 cheetahs out
**Vultures on bones and painted dogs sleeping

1020 line for Lion King (1100 show) (we ended up in the giraffe section!) Fun, whimsicle, well acted, nicely sung.

1130 snack bowl at harambe village $12 we shared one (rice, chicken, chickpeas, veggies) and found it tasty and filling. One bowl would have been a solid lunch for 1. Shared, was a good snack for 2.

1230 train to Rafiki
***Watched Animation Experience (got there a few minutes too late to participate) and I took pics so I could recreate Eeyore later.
***Birthday party for a goat (daisy)- watched zookeepers work on some training. She did not really like her cake.

1315 train back and wander (slowly) to Asia- explored shops while waiting for our lunchtime reservation.

1400 to Yak and Yeti (tasty. Pot stickers were a TINY portion of 5 for $13!! The entrees were filling and yummy: honey chick and sweet/sour chick.)

1500-1700 Animal trails on Oasis and Discovery Island (missed them first day)
I'm really glad that we prioritized wandering down the animal trails again. No matter how much time we have at this park, we always feel like we miss so much of the detail. We spent several hours with our focus being the animal exhibits and the little tiny trails wandering all around the tree of life and elsewhere.

Everest did not reopen until after we left at 1700. Park closing at 1800, but we hurt and didnt need to stay for night stuff.

Glad we didn't need to ride Everest, since it was closed and when it reopened it was a 90min wait! (We did it last week)
***Got a great surprise by happening on the Winged Encounters (last one of the day) while up at the front of the park.

Showered and in bed, relaxing, by 1734!!!

(Evidently I fell asleep by 1830. Guess I was wiped out)

3 rides, 2 shows, 1 train, many animals and trails....meandering afternoon.
7 miles/17700 steps

 

[Cindylieu]

 

[Cindylieu]

Day 11: Epcot Festival Day!
Today is our festival day. No genie for this day and very few rides prioritized. Today is the day that we will be snacking around the world and trying to see as much of the festival in the world showcase as possible.

Alarm set to get VQ for Guardians at 7am. No reservations. No agenda except to see all remaining country and continue to snack around the world. Not sure what time we will go. No need to rope drop today (major change for me!)

(Got 12 HOURS of rest last night! Asleep by 1815 and awake at 0615!)

0647 heading out for a quick walk to the pool bathroom. For the first time in days. I don't have severe tendonitis on the top of my left foot, nor do I have severe Achilles pain. Everything's still a little tender, but it is so much better than it has been! What a treat to be able to walk with minimal pain.

0700 Guardians VQ- tried to hesitate a second so we could get a later boarding group for guardians. Hesitated.... Got boarding group 6. There will be no late start for us today.

0730 breakfast muffins and coffee cake and coffee and juice

0800
Epcot bus line (The Magic Kingdom bus line stretches all the way down the front of the hotel, almost from at one end of the entrance to the other with probably six loads worth of people in the line.)

0835 in park (A truly relaxed morning. No rushing. No rope drop frenzy)

0848 Soarin
(Boarding group just called for Guardians. Will go there next)

0930 VQ Guardians line
Off at 0953
Everybody wants to rule the world

1000 Club Cool.

1026 Canada
O' Canada and chill on a bench until 1100 (maple popcorn for later)

1100 Fish and Chips in UK
1137 met Pooh (saw Alice)

1200 France and Beauty and the Beast sing-along

1225 chorizo empanada

1239 baklava, almond cookie, orange cake in Morocco

1250 Waygu bun and sushi donut in Japan
(These are Ray's favorites of the festival! We had to do them again.)

1306 America - hummingbird cake (super sweeeeet!) and Voices of Liberty (also, super sweet!)

1330 Voices of Liberty (made me cry!)

1400 explored Italy but found nothing there that we wanted to eat. I fear that Italy will be the country we miss on this trip.

1420 Brat (not great) and Caramel butter bar (so great!) in Germany

1515 Reflections of China
Egg rolls at Joy of Tea (yum!)

1613 Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico (no more food! Please!!)

We made it to all of the countries, but we skipped snacks in Mexico and Italy. They just didn't have anything that really appealed to us and we were definitely running out of snack room.

1700 Friendship Boat to France
1730 Skyliner to Pop Century
1815 back to Epcot to watch the ball
1840 nemo

1900 golf ball
1930 walking out and snagged Guardians photo, mobile ordered pizza on bus

2030 back to hotel with pizza.
2130 night night (cancelled dinner reservation for tomorrow at Woody's Round up. Will plan for Ronto wraps or something. We are JUST SO FULL OF FOOD!)

22000 steps/9 miles
3 rides
4 shows
Skyliner and friendship boat once

 

[Cindylieu]

 

[Cindylieu]

 

[jo-jo]

Amazing amazing pictures, amazing trip, amazing report. I'd love to say take me next time, but I wouldn't make it past the first two hours.
The tron picture, looks like it was taken on a prop, not during the ride. So clear.

Very jealous of all the food, looks so good. So many times, like burger king ads.......the burger is 4 inch thick. In real life, 1 inch. All the food you had looked good. Of course you might have had to mortgage the house to buy those egg rolls, but that's another story.

You could write a "how to' book for disney, you did sooooo much.

Truly jealous of you and happy for you that you had such a great trip.

 

[Cindylieu]

Day 12: Hollywood Studios with Genie and ILL

0600 Up, and had leftover pizza, maple corn, and fresh coffee for breakfast

0700 Bought Genie+ and ILL for Rise of the Resistance

Plan:
LL Slinky
ILL Rise of the Resistance
RD Tower of Terror

Later LL priorities:
Minnie and Mickey
Smuggler's Run
Tower of Terror
Toy Story
Star Tours

Other things:
Meet Edna
Muppet 3D
Lightening McQueen
Beauty and the Beast?
Indiana Jones?

(We over budgeted by about $300, probably because we canceled Woody's rodeo Roundup and because I had a lot of spending money that I'm finding hard to spend. We don't want to be left with money on gift cards, so we are going to buy an individual lightning line today for rise of the resistance as a splurge.)
0710 to front and COFFEE
0730 on bus to HS

0830 Rope Drop: on Tower (off by 0847)

0850 in SB line for Minnie and Mickey (20 posted)
Off at 9:20

0927 Back to Tower of Terror SB (20 minute posted wait) to film room at 9:40
Off at 0953

To Edna (we got the VIP treatment! There was no line for Edna and I saw her through the window. I showed her that I was wearing my Edna Mode shirt just for her and she was delighted ! She came down the hall to take my hand and lead me to her space. How fun!!)

To Slinky (ILL) checked through a at 1010
******Done at 1019

1030 SB Indiana Jones (1045 show) and this time We had front row seats! We could feel the fire as the explosions happened. It was a nice time.

1100-1200 Ronto wraps, blue and green milk
Today we had originally planned to do Woody's rodeo barbecue restaurant. We'd had so much food in the last few days, though that we opted to cancel that and do Ronto wraps instead. They were yummy! I am sure that I would have liked the other restaurant but we just had no more space for such a large amount of food.

1210 Rise of the resistance ILL (Ride reopened just in time and only for a short window!)

1238 muppets 3D

1307 tower LL (160 min posted) off in 15min

1345 Ice cream in Beauty and the Beast theatre
(hand-dipped ice cream scoop at Scoops across from the beauty and the Beast theater. Same price as a Mickey mouse, ice cream sandwich, but a whole lot tastier and a whole lot more. Plus, you can just walk across the road and sit and that theater in the shade and eat your ice cream and peace. You don't even have to care about the show!)
1345-1425

1435 Toy Story LL (55min posted)

1505 Walt Disney presents
This little museum was really fun! I really enjoyed seeing Walt's handwriting and sketches. And the oldest toys from so long ago were really fun to see. We were glad that we had extra time to go through this museum and enjoy it. That's something we've never done before.

1545 Percy Jackson preview and behind the scenes
Our daughter got us hooked on the new Percy Jackson series and it was fun to see the costumes and their little preview movie.

1600 Pluto character meet

1610 Minnie and Mickey Runaway Railway CHANGED! RIDE SHUT DOWN.
1618 Tower of Terror (except the minnie mickey runaway railway ride recovery does not count for Tower of Terror. But Jakob from Fairfield California fixed it for us and allowed us to go through the lightning lane. Even though we turned blue, he fixed it and turned us green. Cast compliment submitted!)

1700 photo recovery and to bus. Done for the day.

Another Pizza from the food court and Percy Jackson on Disney+ at 1900. Bed by 2100.

18000 steps/ 7 miles
7 rides and 7 experiences (3 shows, 2 exhibits, 2 meets) with FOUR of the rides being trips on Tower of Terror!

Tomorrow is our final day at a park and this one is the Magic Kingdom. We're going home early to rest and be ready for tomorrow so we can have one last, really good day.

 

[Cindylieu]

 

[Cindylieu]

 

[Cindylieu]

Day 13: Magic Kingdom with Genie+

Last day in a park... This was s our final actual park day. Our intention was to do all the things we had skipped and to double-down the most favorite things.

0500 up for 0600 bus stop-
This was gonna be an EAAARLY start to the day! This was a rope drop day, for sure.

0615 on bus and in motion
0645 in line
0700 VQ group 5 for Tron (wow!) and FIRST in line to park

0730 first at rope and near front of Ride line, but Seven Dwarfs is delayed start. Argh!
0750 near front of line, but still delayed. Grr!
The delayed start of Seven Dwarfs was really aggravating; the vain wait ended up eating most of our early entry.

0815 gave up and went to Tron when our VQ was called. Our second time on Tron was so fun! I still looked scared, but I loved it!

0842 in line for Haunted Mansion
Walkon (13 posted)
0858 off

0900 thunder Mtn (15m posted)
On at 0913

0925 pirates of the Caribbean. 15 minute posted
Off at 0939

0943 back in line for PIRATES! 15 minutes posted
On at 0950
Photo before 9:56
Off at 1002

Back on pirates at 10:07 (with a 15 minute posted) on ride at 10:15
Off at 10:23

By now we had done all of our very favorites! And Pirates we did three times in a row!

1028 snack time! Popcorn and Mickey bars

1050 LL big thunder
On at 1100

1125 on Walter E Disney train, around the Kingdom and back to Fantasy Land

1200 off of the train and was able to videotape it filling up with water and getting started again with bursts of steam! How awesome!

1216 People Mover! SB
I just love this relaxed and enjoyable ride. We tried to do it a second time but it went down. Ah well ...

1230 carousel of progress SB
1300 Haunted Mansion LL
Off at 1324

1345 Skipper Canteen- this was fun, but honestly not a favorite this time. Good, but kinda unremarkable.

1520 Tiki room and dole whip (vanilla and pineapple )pineapple upside down cake- now THIS is something I LOVED!!! We relaxed in the Tiki room and enjoyed our cake and ice cream.

1545 Tom Sawyers Island. This one has real animatronics that are working and a bridge that goes over to a fort.
We had a good time together exploring the island.
1620 leaving Tom Sawyer Island

1640 Buzz LL

1710 Little Mermaid LL

1730 Train around and around until 1800 quittin' time
Oh my, were we tired! We decided that this last night would be a relaxed one. We decided to head for home.

1800 leaving for the final night.
1900 back to room and ready for down time.

19800 steps/ 8 miles
16 rides or attractions, no shows.

 

[Cindylieu]

 

[Cindylieu]

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[Cindylieu]

Day 14- Final full day and a rest day

0730 awake and very slow morning

0930 breakfast at food court

1010 bus to Disney Springs (strolling, shopping, pins)

1300 boat to Old Key West

1430 boat to Port Orleans Riverside

1540 Boat back to Disney Springs


Of all the resorts we've seen going up & down the river, the one we like the best is the Riverside, because there are wandering trails through the non-mansion buildings with ponds and springs and lots of plants. It's very interesting on that side. The Ole Man Island pool is fun! The mansion side is pretty but not that interesting, and the French Quarter architecture is also pretty but all the same, it appears.


1645 bus to Poly (1800 reservation)

1655 car hit bus. Now we are stuck in traffic waiting to be loaded onto another one. More buses stacked up behind us. Took 45 minutes to clear the wreck and transfer us all to another bus. Bus driver was calm, but we saw his hands shaking after the collision. Never fun to be in a wreck. Disney staff was attentive and expressed caring to all passengers and the guy who hit us. Seems to have a pretty good system in place to handle such things.

1740 on our way on recovery bus


1744 SAW AN ARMADILLO!!


1750 poly and Ohana (in time for check in to our reservation)


1800 Ohana best seat in the house! A table for two by the window overlooking pool, bay, and Magic Kingdom. Too bad we won't be here for fireworks in 2 hours. Menu: Chicken, beef, pot stickers, shrimp, noodles, bread, salad, veggies, pineapple caramel bread pudding and vanilla ice cream, lemonade (oh man!!)


1940 to Poly beach (chilly!) & enjoyed Happily Ever After

2026 at bus stop for wherever (HS) and then our hotel

2120 on All Star bus

2140 here

2200 bed


14000 steps/5.3 miles

5 Buses and 4 boats

 

[Cindylieu]

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