"Are we going to Disney World today?" September 2017 Trip Report w/ Pics

[DeterminedOne]

We traveled to the World September 24-29 and stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter. Myself - who hasn’t been in eleven years, and my husband who hasn’t been since Magic Kingdom opened in 1971.

Hubs and I have been together five years – married for two. This is a second marriage for both. It took five years to get him to agree to this vacation. He just didn’t see the value in it. When he visited in 1971 he was in 5th grade and Magic Kingdom was the only park. That was the view of Walt Disney World he’s had in his head for over 40 years.

I wanted to go back there in a bad way. Eleven years is too long!
We bought our dream house three years ago and vacations have been on the back burner. I made a deal with him if I could save up the money for the trip without taking anything away from the household, I would pay for it. He agreed. I immediately set up a Disney Vacation Account in which I had money deducted from my checking account every two weeks.

Three months before the trip I lost my job to a layoff. Thanks to the money I had saved in the DVA, I was only $600 shy of the amount we needed for the trip. There was no way I was giving up on what I had been dreaming about for over a decade, so fast forward to the trip.

Day One
We headed to the airport at 4:00AM for our 6:30 flight. Despite the highs hovering around 90 degrees both where we flew out of and in Orlando, I had to buy this long sleeve shirt at the airport because I was cold.


Yes, I’m one of those people. The lady in the office always bundled up in a sweater
no matter what the temperature is outside …

We loved being on the plane at sunrise. It was so pretty.


We landed at 8:30. I was stoked we didn’t have to grab our belongings from baggage claim thanks to Disney’s Magical Express. This was over hubs’ head, of course.
As I was planning the trip I tried so hard to get him to understand the difference between Walt Disney World 2017 and Walt Disney World 1971. He just couldn’t wrap his head around it. You should have seen the look on his face the day I told him we might have to take an Uber to some of our table service reservations. He simply could not understand why we would need an Uber “inside the Magic Kingdom.”
I explained how Disney World is like a small city with four parks, 20+ hotels, etc., but he still had it in his head that Disney World is Magic Kingdom.

We finally found our way to the Magical Express after about 20 minutes trying to find it. The directional signs in the Orlando airport are so messed up, IMO.


First stop was Old Key West Resort. Hubs was thoroughly impressed with the looks of that resort and said “I want to stay at Key West.”
I assured him our resort was nice and that he would love it. Guess he should have
listened in the months when I tried to explain the difference between value, moderate and deluxe resorts. I know we had the conversation because I originally wanted to stay at Contemporary. However, I quickly discovered it wasn’t in the budget. In his defense, I don’t think it was that he didn't listen.
He just didn’t understand ...

Next we stopped at Saratoga Springs and again there was a look of wonderment
in his eyes. Port Orleans French Quarter was the next stop. As we made our way toward the lobby I asked if he liked the looks of it. I said “This is nice, right?”
He shrugged his shoulders and said “Sure.”

There weren’t a lot of people checking in, but it took a while to get to the front of the line. Every CM was training someone, thus the hold up. It was 10:30 and I was
surprised to learn the room was ready. I had received an email an hour prior stating
it wasn’t, so we were stoked. I had done a room request fax through Touring Plans requesting a corner room on the third floor of building 6, or something like it.
They assigned us first floor of building 5...
I was not looking forward to hearing folks walking above us, so I asked for something else. I apologized for being a pain, and the CM was really nice about it. She made a phone call and came up with a room in building 6 on the second floor …
I didn’t want to cause any more trouble so I accepted. Could have just kept the room in building 5, though...

Garden Grocers had text to let me know our package of wine and water had been delivered. The CM said the package was probably already delivered to the room in building 5 and advised us to call bell services. As we headed to the room I could see hubs was starting to warm up to the locale. POFQ is such a quaint resort.


We had a view of the river and he thought it was pretty.
A word like pretty is against the Man Code, so please keep that a secret. Okay?

We didn’t get a corner view, but oh well. We spent so little time there, so in
the end a corner view didn't matter. It was small – especially the bathroom.


Not nearly as small as what I remembered from a room I once had at All Star Sports.
I never want to stay there again. Not unless it were a free trip.

Hubs spends a lot of time in motel rooms on the road for work, so the first thing he did was check for bed bugs.
No issues there and the sheets were clean. The room was clean in general, but definitely needs some TLC. The lights above the sink hadn’t been dusted in a long time, and the doors, walls and light switches could really use a wipe down. Not a deal breaker, but details do matter.



I phoned bell services and they said if we could wait around for a while they would find our grocery delivery. I explained we didn’t necessarily need the items at the
moment and would check back later that night.
We waited less than ten minutes for a bus headed to EPCOT.

We were on our way to to use some snack credits at Food and Wine. With 12 credits each and the DxDP, I knew using all those credits would be problematic. More on
that later.

We arrived at EPCOT early enough to fit in a few rides, so I had gotten us FastPasses for Soarin’ and Living with the Land. I know, I know. Who uses a FP for Living with the Land?
I only did it because Soarin' and Living with The Land are in the same building.
I didn’t want to walk to Future World in the heat. I’ve been there in September
before and the heat is brutal. This time was no exception. Not only was it hot,
but the humidity was 117%. Ok, maybe not, but that’s how it felt.

On the bus ride I pulled out my phone to check our first FP time. I had it in my head that Soarin’ was set for 2:15, but wasn't sure. Imagine the panic when I opened
MDE to this message:


No plans?? What the FOOF? I panicked.
What did it mean we didn’t have any plans? What??

Not only did we have plans - we had major ADR’s like Be Our Guest and
Hoop Dee Doo. We had major FastPasses like Seven Dwarves Mine Train
and Flight of Passage. Elizabeth, I’m coming to join you honey!

Bonus points to all who get that reference …

I tried hard not to show my panic outwardly to the hubs. After all, I was determined to show him how awesome Disney World is. With the Touring Plans app on my phone, I quickly jumped in the chat room and asked what to do.
In real life I could have figured that out on my own – go to Guest Services.
But I was in Disney distress, so …

We were really hungry, so I decided we would head to World Showcase for food before going to Guest Services. After getting through security I asked hubs if it would be okay to stop to find my Leave a Legacy tile from 2004 with the ex. He was happy to oblige.


From there we hurried to MouseGears in search of a knife. Yes. A knife.
We have yet to invest in the TSA locks in which they have a special key to open our luggage. We use good old fashioned zip ties. If they need to open our luggage - scissors or a knife will do. Hubs always, always, always carries a pocket knife.
He grew up in the 60’s/70’s and says that was the thing to do back then. In fact,
he said his uncle taught all the boys in the family how to use one properly.
Should have taught the girls too, but what -evs ...

I cannot tell you the number of times he has had to use that knife on the run to
cut a tag from my clothes, cut into pesky packaging for me - things like that.
We get to the World and he says he doesn’t have his knife. What??
He said they were going to confiscate it at the airport, so he left it at home.
I reminded him how he could have put it in the side pocket of his checked bag.
How were we supposed to open our luggage?

We headed to MouseGears. I asked the cashier where to find the knives.
The looks …
We left MouseGears knife-less, needless to say. Oh well. Worse-case scenario -
borrow scissors from the front desk. It was off to World Showcase to feed our bellies. Our Food and Wine dining report is here: FOOD AND WINE FESTIVAL

After eating through WS we headed to Guest Services for assistance with the MDE crisis. First thing first – find Guest Services without having a map. I suddenly realized in all my trips to the World, I’ve never had to use Guest Services. I headed to the front of the park in search of a map. Surely we would find Guest Services along the way. Hubs tagged along slowly -questioning my every move. He was exhausted
at this point and we were both hot, so we were crabby. Him more so than I ...

We made it all the way to the entrance where I asked a CM where to find Guest Services. She pointed. As we prepared to walk away, a different CM asked what was wrong. I explained the dilemma with MDE. He confirmed the system was down and said it might be a while. He was gracious enough to pull up our plans on his tablet
and allowed me to take pictures of his screen.

Can I just tell you how much I love Disney World?

Crisis averted, we headed to our FP at Soarin’.
I rode Soarin’ before in 2006, but thanks to DIS, this time I asked to be in the first row. The CM didn’t even blink an eye at the request and off we went.
Soarin’ is amaze-balls!! I teared up during the scene where Tinkerbell makes an appearance and when our flight arrived back at EPCOT.

Our dinner reservation took us to Jiko at Animal Kingdom Lodge. JIKO REVIEW
Hubs was so impressed with Animal Kingdom Lodge he insisted we stop at the gift shop. I’m a pin collector and purchased one of the “mystery” pin packages. I had to buy an AKL magnet, too. I have been collecting magnets since 1994. This is the magnet wall hubs set up for me in our mud room.


The CM who rung up my loot was very personable and we had a nice conversation. I explained how it was technically Hubs’ first visit. Later when he approached the register to pay for his merch, she gave him a “First Visit” pin.
I … love … Disney … World!!!

From there we took the bus to Disney Springs and then took the boat back to POFQ.
I stopped at Bell Services and they arranged to meet us at the room with our libations. Then we stopped at Sassagoula Floatworks to pick up our refillable mugs. We showered then headed to bed.

We had to be up bright and early for a pre-park opening reservation at Beast’s castle.

 

[missangelalexis]

Joining in!

I too am that person who is always bundled up in a sweater

I am looking forward to hear how your husband likes Disney now in the present time! Your first day sounds like it was great!

 

[rdkeim]

Great start to your TR! I like your sense of humor FOOF. Elizabeth - yes I get the reference I hope you're able to convert your husband!

 

[shannie102]

Cant wait for the rest, thanks for the reminder to take some screen shots in case MDE goes down!

 

[DeterminedOne]

DAY TWO

The day before when I told hubs we had to wake up at 5:30 this day he was like – no way. On vacation? Yes sir. We had an 8:00 reservation at Be Our Guest and I wanted to be at the bus stop at 6:45. Just in case we had a major wait for the bus.
The alarm went off, but he didn’t get up right away. He knows how long it
takes me to get ready, so he finally got out of bed shortly after 6.
The first thing he said was “Are we going to Disney World today?”

I said “Sweetie, we’re already at Disney World. We’re going to the Magic Kingdom today.” It was so cute because it was like he was ten years old again. I will never forget that moment.

Things went as planned and we were at the bus stop promptly at 6:45. I don’t think we waited five minutes and the bus was there. We arrived at Magic Kingdom by 7:00. It was still dark. Oh well - better early than late.

I have this thing that happens to me at Disney World. At a certain point during the trip I get this “feeling.” A feeling in which my heart is so full of joy I can barely stand it. I never know when it’s going to hit. I just have to wait for it.

Well, seeing the rise of the sun and the dew float off the lake in front of Magic Kingdom did it for me. In fact, I’m getting teary eyed as I type this. If I could take that feeling, bottle it up and sell it –I would be a billionaire because I know anyone reading this knows exactly what I mean. It was difficult for hubs to understand how I could be so overwhelmed with joy when we hadn’t even entered the park.
It took a few days, but he eventually got his own "feeling” for himself. More on that later …



We were two of about ten guests in the park at this point. It was magical. They held us back until around 7:50. In the meantime, we stood in line and struck up a conversation with a woman there with her little girl. It was their last day, so she was going through the We’re Leaving Disney World Blues. I was on a high and she was on a low. It was a good conversation. They were headed to Be Our Guest for the second time that week. She shared a strategy for getting pics in front of the castle without a bunch of people in it. She said "When they let us in, follow me."

I was loaded down with the DSLR camera in one hand and the GoPro in the other- determined to capture every aspect of those moments I possibly could. Hubs snapped this picture and I didn’t even notice.
Good one, sweetie. Thanks!

We followed her and what she did was while everyone else veered left toward the castle, we veered to the right. There were two PhotoPass cast members just waiting for us. Check out this picture.
Is this not worth a million dollars?

Pictures in front of the castle secured, we moseyed along to breakfast. See dining report here: BE OUR GUEST

We left Beast’s house around 8:45. The line for Seven Dwarfs was forming, but there were still only about thirty people ahead of us. We had a FP for it, but wanted to ride at least once before using it. Seeing as how it had been eleven years since I had been to the World, 7DMT was new to me. People rave about it so much I figured it must be pretty special. As we waited in line I strapped the GoPro on my head to record the adventure. Shortly thereafter we began boarding.

Disney touts 7DMT as a kids ride.
The lie detector test determined that was a lie!
I screamed my head off!

The video I recorded is hilarious. The folks in the car in front of us were clearly amused by me. I screamed. A lot. When the ride slowed down as it made its way into the mine I shouted “They put kids on this?”

The guy in the car in front looked back at me and just cracked up laughing. At this point since the ride had slowed down and I was admiring the beauty of it. I started to feel more brave. I told hubs that if there were more hills and drops we should put our hands up in case of ride photos. I was saying all this as the ride started to move faster. I had my arms lifted barely an inch when we went into another crazy turn.
I screamed, held on for dear life and blurted out
“Well, that’s not going to be a good picture.”

The folks in front just laughed and laughed.
I am so fortunate to have gotten it all on video. Memories for years to come.

As we exited the ride, the CM said we could go again and put us back in line. The second ride wasn’t as scary since I knew what to expect, but it was still just as thrilling. We rode one more time after that using FP.

So … much … fun!!​

I am so glad we had breakfast at BOG. Everything we experienced those first few hours was absolutely priceless …

 

[missangelalexis]

I definitely know that feeling you're talking about!

Great pic of you juggling the two cameras. Early breakfast was worth it for that empty castle photo! Sounds like a nice morning.

 

[DeterminedOne]

THE REMAINDER OF DAY TWO

I need to backtrack for a sec and show you this pic and the look on my face when we were on the Mine Train.



Walking on cloud nine after a wonderful experience on the mine train, I was up to exploring Fantasyland just a little more. I don’t have kids, so never been to Disney World with one. Therefore, Fantasyland had always been a get in-get out part of the park for me. In fact, the only rides I ever experienced back there were Small World and Philharmagic. Now that Snow White and the Dwarfs had us feeling like five year olds we rode Little Mermaid, Small World and the Carousel. I desperately wanted to ride Peter Pan, but the wait was 60 minutes. I had planned to ride it immediately after 7DMT, but hubs had me convinced it was over near the Mermaid. As it turned out he was looking at the wrong number on the map. Since I was not very familiar with Fantasyland, I didn’t realize he was wrong.

We had FP for Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder early afternoon. I suggested we head to Tomorrowland because logistically it made the most sense. It was really hot, so we wanted to walk as little as possible.
Prior to the trip I purchased this misting fan at the grocery.


I was stoked because it was on clearance for $7.99. At some point I looked it up on Amazon to see if I had gotten a good deal and to read the reviews. Did I get a good deal? Yes - but the reviews were horrible.
Most buyers shared how it broke on first use. The day before the trip I went to test it out, and guess what. It broke. I pulled the trigger and that was it. Trigger didn’t work anymore. Ugh!

At Tomorrowland we rode Buzz with just a 10 minute wait. I forgot how much that one hurts my hands and fingers. I let hubs control the spin and was frustrated because he caused us to miss a lot of targets.
When it was all said and done I had a talk with myself to get over it because silly reason to be frustrated.
Next we did Carousel of Progress and the People Mover to escape the heat. Hubs wanted to ride Space Mountain, but the wait was 40 minutes. I wanted to spend that time moving toward Liberty Square, so promised if we didn’t ride this day we would return to MK another day during the week.

Then he teased about wanting to ride the Speedway. He recalled riding it in 1971. He and and his little brother referred to it as Grand Pricks because they were reading Prix as Pricks. He said his dad and stepmom allowed them to roam the park all alone. In those days guests had to have a ticket for each ride, so he and his brother walked the park asking strangers for tickets to the Grand Pricks.

He enjoyed the look and feel of Liberty Square. He’s the Patriotic type, so this part of the park excited him. We wanted to ride the riverboat, but it was departing just as we arrived. The Hall of Presidents was closed. He would have liked that. We made our way toward Haunted Mansion to use our FP. We still had about 20 minutes before it was valid, so we just stood on a bridge nearby and waited. No unnecessary walking, remember.

It was inside HM I got into a small spat with another guest. Hubs and I were walking arm and arm through the queue. A woman and two small girls literally tried to break us a part to get in front of us. My natural reaction was to resist. She said “Excuse me, we’re just trying to be with our family”, in a not so nice tone.
I said “Excuse me. I’m just trying to be with my family.”
She said “Well, they’re just kids.”

I don’t know if she meant it was okay to plow us down because she had kids in tow, or what it meant really. I just knew in that moment I was not going to let anyone, and I mean no one, steal my magic. I let them by,
but was a little ticked inside. It’s not as if trudging in front of us was going to get her closer to her family once they got in the doom buggies.
What -evs! There were others throughout the week who tried to
do the same thing, or bumped into us without acknowledgement. Adults. Disgusting!

After the mansion we headed to lunch at Skipper Canteen. The dining report is here. SKIPPER CANTEEN
Then we headed to our FP at Big Thunder. Whoa boy! I forgot how wild that one is. It was fun! We had finally used all three FP, so made another for Space Mountain. It was about an hour before we could use it, so we decided to ride Pirates on standby. The wait was 40 minutes, but we were on in about 20. We really enjoyed this ride because over the summer we attempted to learn the lyrics to 'A Pirates Life for Me'. I learned more of it then hubs, but then again, I was far more committed.


After Pirates I checked the Touring Plans ride app and it said Jungle Cruise was a posted wait time of 45 minutes and that the actual wait time was 33 minutes. I suggested we go for it, especially since we had just eaten at Skipper Canteen. Just as we approached the ride, the wait time jumped
to 50 minutes, and we waited in line all 50 of it. We are both the type who don’t care to wait in line more than 30 minutes, so waiting for Jungle Cruise was torture. The queue is super narrow, so when it’s hot it feels
like you’re on top of one another. There are also parts in the line when you’re standing in the direct sun. The only thing that saved us from being cranky was reading all of the sarcastic signs and posters in the queue.

It was sad to witness a family in line with a little girl about four years old. She was holding herself and bouncing up and down because she had to use the bathroom. The mom said to her “We are not getting out of this line.”
That was painful to watch. One of the cast members eventually pulled her from the line and allowed her to use the bathroom someplace near or on the dock.

We headed over to Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain, which was to be our last stop. We had been at Magic Kingdom close to nine hours – my longest in any of the parks. It was his first ride on Space Mountain it lived up to his expectations. We hopped on the bus and headed back to the room for a bit. We had a dinner reservation at Yachtsman Steakhouse.

We took a taxi from French Quarter to the Yacht Club to save time. It allowed us to stay in the room a little longer. We must have been exhausted because we took a quick nap. The fare cab fare to Yacht Club was $12. The dining report is here. YACHTSMAN STEAKHOUSE

After dinner we walked the Boardwalk for a little while. It was dead. Hubs asked why there was nothing going on there and I told him it has been that way ever since I can remember. What happened? Was it ever hopping?


We took the bus to Disney Springs again and hopped on a boat from there. It was a great day! The next day took us back to EPCOT.

 

[DeterminedOne]

DAY THREE

We slept in a bit later this day (6:30) as EPCOT didn’t open until 9. We had time to use our refillable
mugs for the first time. While he got dressed I went down to Sassagoula to get coffee. I don’t drink much
coffee IRL, but I found the late nights and early mornings taxing. As we made our way to the bus stop I realized
I was wearing the wrong shoes. Had to go back and change because at this point in the trip my legs and feet
were starting to hurt.

Ahead of the trip I purchased two pair of sandals – a pair of Teva and a pair of Merrell’s. Both were supposed
to be “good” shoes, but the Teva didn’t work out that well. I had worn them several times over the summer to
break them in, so it’s not like my feet were bothered because they were new. I think the problem was there was no support on the front part of the shoe. The heel and arch support were great, but my toes felt as if they were sitting
on the ground. A few hours into the first day my toes started cramping badly.

The next day I wore Skechers flip flops. They were super comfortable, but with all the walking and no strap supporting the back of my foot - my shins hurt. The Merrell’s ended up being a game changer. Most comfortable sandal ever!
I will never buy another Teva product. I cannot believe they sell those darn things for upwards of $80.

We made it to EPCOT right at 9 and had a bit of trouble getting through the turnstiles. The Magic Band/finger scanner
machines were being wonky. The CM said hand lotion and sunscreen get them out of whack.
Our first FP was for Test Track. Hubs loved this ride! He has hauled cars from General Motors for over 30 years,
so this was right up his alley. I let him design the vehicle. Unfortunately, his design didn’t do very well in testing.
There is one part of this ride that scares me. The part when it's outside and shows how fast you’re traveling.
I think to myself – if this car goes flying off the track we are going really, really fast …

I checked the TP line app and it showed a 25 minute wait for Soarin’, so we headed over there. I really like that app.
It was accurate most of the time. We asked to be in the first row again, but this time we were in seats one and two.
I got to see what people mean when they say the Eiffel Tower is distorted. No worries though – still a great ride.
There was a little boy who kept yelling at the screen. “Hi whale! Sorry elephants!”
He was just a wee tot, so it was totes adorbs.

We had about 15 minutes until World Showcase opened so we went to Canada. Decided to go inside and watch
O’Canada to escape the heat and because it’s a good film. It didn’t open until 11:15 so we just hung out and took pictures.


Next we made our way to the Japan pavilion for lunch at Teppan Edo.
Here’s the dining report, if you’re interested. TEPPAN EDO

It was during this walk I started to notice how bad people are at operating the ECV’s. They will run you over
if you let them. My personal favorite is the stop go stop go movements.

The reason we were at EPCOT this day was specifically to explore the pavilions. Back in 2006 I took the
Secrets of World Showcase backstage tour. It gave me a whole new love for EPCOT. On the way to Japan
we skipped the UK, France and Morocco vowing to explore them before we left the park. We never did make it back there. Wah, Wah, Wah!!!
We did stop a few times for PhotoPass pics.


After lunch we spent some time exploring the Mitsukoshi store, something I had never done. Wow!
That place is impressive. I bought a fan for my girlfriend back home and had her name written on it Japanese.
She uses these fans often IRL and gave me one over the summer when I complained of feeling overheated.


I took that fan she gave me on this trip and used it daily. It worked better than that raggedy **** misting fan
ever could. Next we went to the American Adventure. Can I just say that after visiting the store in Japan,
I was disappointed with the store at AA. Why don’t we have a huge store like that in the America pavilion?

It took all of ten minutes to look around in there. They did have a pressed penny machine, so that was exciting ...
Until I put the money in, pressed the penny and it never dropped from the machine …

My first instinct was to leave and just let it go. Then I decided to tell the cashier so she could make sure it got fixed.
She made a phone call as she said they sometimes keep extra pressed pennies on hand for situations like that.
She really wanted me to have that penny and I love her for that. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any on hand, so she apologetically refunded my 51 cents. This is my pressed penny collection. I’m quite proud of it.


My goal this trip was to get at least ten new ones and I succeeded. I only used pennies made prior to 1983
this time and I cleaned them using a vinegar and salt mixture. I don’t care what people say, I could tell the
difference between the ones I never washed and the ones I did. I could also tell the difference between the
pre and post 1983 pennies. I can definitely see the silver streak in the ones made after ’83.

We walked over to the American Adventure theater because I wanted hubs to see Voices of Liberty.
They are ahhhmazing! We had some time to kill before their next performance, so I searched the net to
find out if there were any Hidden Mickeys there. There is one.


There was a street performer outside Italy, so we watched him for a bit. I couldn’t spend much time in
their gift shop because the smell of all the perfume bothered my sinuses in a bad way. Next up was Germany,
which is one of my favorites because of the train display. The level of detail there is incredible.

Look closely. There are people on the train. Not real people, but you know what I mean. I could look at
this display for hours.

We went inside Karamell Kuche as I was on the hunt for something yummy we could get with snack credits.
Never did find anything though. The gift shop at Germany is super awesome as well. The crystal figurines are wow,
but really – who can afford that stuff? 12 grand for a crystal Beauty and the Beast figurine is too much for
these working stiffs.

I wanted to ride Frozen Ever After when we got to Norway, but the wait was ridiculous and we couldn’t get a FP.
The pavilion itself is pretty, but their gift shop is just one big area full of Frozen memorabilia.
I heard a little girl say “Why do they have sweaters in here? It’s so hot outside.”

We stopped and got a Mickey ice cream sandwich then headed to Mexico. There was a wonderful mariachi band
out front, so we enjoyed them for a while. The Photopass photographer was a lot of fun.


I wanted to ride Three Cabelleros and hubs was all “I don’t want to wait in another line.” I assured him
the wait would be minimal, and it was. I could see he was starting to get heat cranky, so opted to go back
to the room. On the bus ride back we met some nice people from Ohio. They had their mom with them and she
was celebrating her 87th birthday.

This was the earliest we’d made it back to the room all week and it was nice.
Later that evening we had a dinner reservation at The Boathouse, so we took the boat to Disney Springs.
The boat had just left when we made it to the dock, but we didn’t have to wait long for the next.
We didn’t have any problems at all with Disney transportation. There were a few times we had to wait for a bit,
but nothing outside of their every 20 minute time frame. The buses from the resort were excellent!
I was surprised how fast and frequent they were. My review of The Boathouse is here. THE BOATHOUSE
It sums up what we ended up doing for the rest of the evening, so there’s really nothing else to add here.
Toodles!

 

[rdkeim]

Your trip so far seems like a success! Sometimes an early evening is what's needed especially for the cranky husband

 

[missangelalexis]

Great pic on SDMT! Sounds like a wonderful MK day!

I like your Photopass pics in Epcot, looks like you guys were having a good time exploring the countries.

 

[DeterminedOne]

DAY FOUR

This was Animal Kingdom day. We had FP for Everest, Kilmanjaro and Flight of Passage. Days prior we contemplated waking up super early to be first in line for FOP. The day before we decided no. We had a FP and that would do. The thought of waiting around with throngs of people just didn’t seem fun.

We were up at 6:30, but didn’t leave the room until 8. The lines were mobbed and security was militant.
When the guard looked through my GoPro bag he pulled out the handle and said I couldn’t use it in the park
because it extends. I told him actually it doesn’t extend, but he was being argumentative.
I ended the argument by letting him know I wasn’t going to be using the handle anyway.
This was the only encounter I had with security about my GoPro equipment. No big deal, just an observation.


We headed to Asia toward Everest. Sure enough, most folks were heading to Pandora. Despite throngs of people
in line, the park didn’t feel busy at all where we were. As we were approaching, a CM said Everest was not open and suggested we come back later. I continued walking toward the mountain as I wanted insight as to when they thought it would be operational and what to do about our FP. Here’s where Disney CM’s crack me up and I noticed this particularly
at Animal Kingdom.

They hesitate to say a ride is “down” or “broken”, or negative words like that. Instead, the CM said
“The Mountain doesn’t want to wake up this morning.”
Ultimately, I think positive communication is effective, but I see you Disney.
She said if it wasn’t operational by the time our FP expired the FP would be converted in MDE to allow use at any time. The Touring Plans app suggested it might be operational shortly after 10. We hung around the Rivers of Light theater
for a bit just killing time while I checked the apps and what was going on in chat.

I suggested we head toward Africa and get ready for our FP at Kilmanjaro. Along the way we saw Kali was a 10 minute wait. This is where the pres-cheduled FP system got to me. Back in the day when we had to physically go to the ride and pick up a FP it seemed easier to choose other rides on the fly. Now that our FP’s are prescheduled, it seemed we were navigating the parks based on a window of time instead of with more of a go-with-the-flow attitude.
I completely forgot about Kali because I was too locked in on when our next FP was scheduled.

Anyway – it was hot and the wait was minimal, so I suggested we ride. Hubs protested at first. At this
point it was just before 10 and he didn’t want to be wet all day. I persisted, arguing how quickly we would dry
in the Florida heat. He agreed and we boarded a raft all to ourselves. I contemplated wearing a poncho, but decided against it. I remember back in the day when Kali first opened how other guests would razz you for wearing a poncho
on this ride. It was crazy because that was the time when a cast member was stationed inside the queue actually
selling ponchos – and people bought them. My main concern was getting my hair wet because I didn’t want to walk
around with an afro all day. Hubs loaned me his beloved Tilley hat instead.

As I said, we had the raft to ourselves and he sat down right next to me. I was already belted in, so tried to get
him to sit across from me so I could record the adventure. I don’t think he quite got it. Kali is one of those rides
in which you can tell pretty quickly whether you’re going to get soaked. If your back is facing the climb, you’re
going to get soaked on the drop. Sure enough, our backs were facing the climb. Hubs took the brunt of the water
and he was in shock for a few seconds. Mouth was literally wide open in shock. Dang! Wish I could have gotten it on camera.

As we were exiting we noticed the wait was still at ten minutes so rode it again with minimal wait. This time
there was a threesome on with us and hubs sat across from me. This time I was the one who ended up soaked.
It was fun!


We waited in the FP line for Kilmanjaro for about 20 minutes with no movement. Finally a CM made an
announcement that one of the animals was blocking the path. I had to wonder if that was true, or if one of the ride vehicles broke down. They will never tell …
We struck up a conversation with a young couple with two girls – cute little things. I asked the girls the million dollar question. “Did you ride Frozen Ever After?” Oh, boy! They told us everything about the ride.
Cute! Cute! Cute!

The safari was good and the animals active. We even got to see a lion. My personal favorites were the baby elephants.


We definitely want to take the Wild Jungle Trek tour next time. It looked awesome to be able to walk over
the top of the safari on a rope bridge. I did the Backstage Safari tour before and let me tell you, we didn’t get to
do anything nearly as cool as that. The coolest thing we saw was when they took us to the kitchen where the animals’ food is prepared and I saw a bag of frozen mice.
Oh, and we got to see them perform surgery on a skunk. Ok, that was pretty cool actually.

After the safari we walked the Gorilla Trek. By far the creepiest part of that trail is the bat exhibit.
I had an encounter with a bat last summer and almost ended up in the psych ward, so …
As we looked through the enclosure I didn’t realize my skirt was still wet. The universe aligned just right and as
I spotted one of the bats, a drop of water fell from my skirt onto my leg.
Ohhhhh lawwwwd! I thought the bat got me.
Hubs and whoever else was around got a kick out of that.

It was then time for lunch at Tiffins, which was the incredible. Here’s the dining report. TIFFINS

After lunch we headed to Pandora for FOP. There was a CM out front helping people get on and off the banshee.
I decided to get on just to have a better of idea of what to expect on the ride. I’ve seen threads where folks
have said they didn’t fit and that they smash your chest pretty tight against the machine.
I wasn’t necessarily worried about fitting on the ride. However, I’m top heavy and wanted to make sure the twins
weren’t going to be a problem. I imagined it to be similar to a mammogram machine, but it wasn’t that bad.

Hubs asked the CM if we would enjoy the ride without having seen the movie.
In true Disney fashion the CM gave him a strange look and said “What movie? Ohhhh, you mean the documentary?”
Hubs was visibly confused, so the CM summed it up by saying “This is Pandora and the Avatar documentary is about our world here. Of course you will enjoy the ride.”
Gotta give it to ‘em. They … are … good.


This next tidbit is in the dining report, but I absolutely have to share it here as well. Right in front of me in line for FOP was Pete from DIS Unplugged. Oh my gosh, I nearly fainted! That was awesome! He was there with his family and was very personable and friendly. That was the universe’s way of lining up just right to fix what it had done to me on the Gorilla Trek …

FOP was fun. I had a feeling by the way the visor thing on the front was pointed downward that the first thing that would happen was a big drop. I was right. That drop welled up a huge scream from my throat. I was a little embarrassed because no one else was screaming, but I couldn’t control myself. Very cool ride, but I will need to ride it again to get a better feel for it. I was so scared and anxiety stricken that I know I didn’t get out of it what I should have. Hubs loved it and said it was his favorite ride. We didn’t spend much time in Pandora after that. I bought a magnet at the gift shop and we hustled out of there toward Everest.


Everest was finally up and running – I mean the mountain was finally awake.
Hubs claims I didn’t clue him in on what Everest was all about. When it got to the point in the ride where we reached the broken track he said he freaked. He thought the car was going to continue forward and dump us off the front. He didn’t recall seeing the Yeti and vaguely remembers going backward. His mind shut down at the broken track. He refused to ride it again.

We rode Kali and got soaked one more time. Last stop was It’s Tough to Be a Bug. I didn't tell him what to expect on
this one, but insist I actually did about Everest. He was surprised at all the right intervals and throughly
enjoyed the show. We left the park around 4:00 and headed back to the room. Had a quick rest then took the boat to Disney Springs for dinner at Raglan Road. Dining report --------> RAGLAN ROAD

 

[missangelalexis]

What a nice day at Animal Kingdom! Sounds like you got a lot of rides done and enjoyed yourselves

 

[DeterminedOne]

DAY FIVE

This was our last day in the parks. When I booked the trip I had planned to spend six nights, but messed the
dates when I booked the flights. Although I was bummed to have cheated us out of a day, it ended up saving
close to $1000. The agenda this day was Hollywood Studios and a little bit of Magic Kingdom.

We had FP for Tower of Terror and Rock n Rollercoaster in the morning and Star Tours in the afternoon.
ToT is a ride I had only been brave enough to ride once. My ex-husband refused to ride, so the one and only time I rode was alone. The ride pic showed me grabbing on to the man next to me - who I didn’t know.
It’s one of those rides I can’t do alone.


Much of my fear for this ride is the build-up, as the theme is believable from start to finish.
I am a huge fan of the show - even have it on DVD box set. I’m one of those people who watch the New Year’s Eve marathon every … single … year. Here is actual footage of me on my couch January 1, 2017.


It would seem ToT would be my favorite ride – but it’s not. I’ve watched enough of the show to understand that just about anything can happen in the Twilight Zone. If there is one ride in which a guest might go missing, it’s this one. As you can see, my imagination gets the best of me.
We ended up riding twice because hubs loved it so much. The things I do for that man …
This pic is from the second ride. As you can see from the look on my face, I was still just as terrified.


He enjoyed RNRC but we agreed it’s a one ride only attraction. It gives me a headache every time.
We had an 11:45 reservation at 50’s Prime Time so we headed there. We stopped along the way to admire
some of the details of the park – like the faux advertisements in the windows seeking tenants, actors and actresses.

We had a good time at 50’s, but there was a mishap with my meal. Dining report -----> 50's Prime Time Cafe
The Manager gave us a FP for the trouble, so I decided we would use it for Toy Story Mania.
We couldn’t get our own FP for TSM because of the dreaded tiered FP system, so the lunch debacle worked in our favor.
What a fun ride? Way better than Buzz Lightyear. Sorry, Buzz!

Our next FP was for Star Tours. I had no desire to ride this as I am not a Star Wars fan. He likes Star Wars, but wouldn’t call himself a fan either. After riding Soarin’ and Flight of Passage we thought Star Tours was lame. Everything is a matter of perspective of course because as we exited the ride we heard a little boy yell “That was awesome!”

We were pretty much finished with what we wanted to do at DHS so we thought about leaving. At this point it was nearly 3:00 so we decided to find a spot to sit so I could check us in to our Southwest flight the next day at 3:10. If you have never flown Southwest then you may not know they don’t assign seats. Passengers have to check in 24 hours in advance and from there are assigned a boarding group – A, B or C. If you’re in the A group you get to board the plane first, and so on and so forth. The risk of not being in the A group means many of the seats are taken by the time you board. I prefer a decent selection of seat choices and try hard to be in the A group.

This means checking in for the flight exactly 24 hours in advance, but nowadays Southwest has this tricky thing they do in which you can pay an extra $15 for them to do the check in for you. I see no value in paying extra for something I can do on my own. The problem is, many passengers do pay for the service, so even after checking in at ten seconds after the 24 hour mark, you can still end up being at the very back of the group.

As we waited to check in for the flight we decided to mosey into Sweet Spells to take a look at the DISfamous carrot cake cookie. It looked heavenly, so we used a snack credit. The young lady at the register could have easily starred in a commercial for the thing because she went on and on about how good it is. She was right. It was outstanding! Way better than the carrot cake at Food and Wine.

As 3:10 approached I already had the required information plugged into the Southwest sight and was positioned to hit submit. The clock struck 3:10, I hit submit and got the “cannot check in” message.
Okay. It happens sometimes as clocks may not be synched.

Typically, I check in via computer and have two browsers open, just in case. If I get the “cannot check in message” I simply toggle to the other browser where the required information is already loaded and hit submit. It works faster than using refresh. However, because I was using my cell phone instead of the computer, I never bothered to open the second browser. I’m sure being tapped into the park’s WiFi didn’t help speed things up at all. Despite taking less than 15 seconds to hit refresh a few times, we still ended up in B group. It was still 3:10!! Ugh!!

While busy on my phone, a parade of Storm Troopers walked by. It was a big production as the street was cleared and ominous music blared over the speaker system. Hubs thought that was pretty cool and decided to get closer to record it.
I just sat there and wallowed in B group sorrow.

Next, we got on the bus and headed back to the room. I stopped at the front desk and asked them to print our boarding passes. I didn't realize until the next day they do it automatically when if you use Magical Express.
It wasn’t long before we headed off to Magic Kingdom. We never got to explore Main Street while we were there and I wanted to do some shopping at the Emporium. He wanted to ride the railroad, so we rode that from Main Street and back again. It chewed up more time than I wanted, but who am I to begrudge the man for wanting to ride the train. Around 6:30 I suggested we start heading toward Wilderness Lodge. We had an 8:30 reservation at Hoop Dee Doo.
Dining report ------> HOOP DEE DOO REVUE

I wanted to explore Wilderness Lodge much in the same way we explored Animal Kingdom Lodge the first night. As it turned out we didn’t end up having much time for that, or so I thought. We made it to the lodge just after 7:00.
On the boat ride over I discovered a mix-up with our dining credits. It ended up not being a mix-up after all, but when we got to the lodge the only thing on my mind was fixing it. The CM at the front desk printed out the detail of the credits we had used and discovered they had already deducted the four credits for HDDR. While it didn’t take a ton of time to straighten out, I was unsure as to how long it would take to get to Fort Wilderness, so we did a quick tour of the lobby and that was it. We never even took any pictures. Dang! We made it to the campground with nearly an hour to spare.

Remember earlier in the report how I described getting the Disney “feeling” and how hubs just didn’t quite get it at the time? Well, on the bus ride to Fort Wilderness I discovered hubs had finally gotten that Disney “feeling” of his own. He had taken this picture at Magic Kingdom and posted it on Instagram with the caption
“There is something spiritually special about this place.”


Tears in my eyes every time I see it …

 

[missangelalexis]

Your face on ToT is great! I also love the little girl in the pink shirt- she's not having it.

Agree about RNRC..always get a headache.

I'm flying SW for the first time this month, the check in part is stressing me out!

Aww what a sweet post from your husband. He was finally feeling the magic!

 

[vassar36]

Love reading your trip report....

 

[kiwi0621]

Love your report and I’m also one of those people who watches twilight
Zone marathon!!

That pic your husband took is great!!

 

[LISAMWDW]

​

 

[Liz]

What a fun trip! I know exactly what you mean about the Disney feel and I'm so happy your hubs felt it for himself! I hope this means many more trips for you in the future!

I definitely got the "I'm coming Elizabeth" reference! And I'm always the cold one in the office, too!

Thanks for taking the time to share your trip!

 

[Domestic_Disney_Dreams]

This It is the same for me.

I have this thing that happens to me at Disney World. At a certain point during the trip I get this “feeling.” A feeling in which my heart is so full of joy I can barely stand it. I never know when it’s going to hit. I just have to wait for it.

Well, seeing the rise of the sun and the dew float off the lake in front of Magic Kingdom did it for me. In fact, I’m getting teary eyed as I type this. If I could take that feeling, bottle it up and sell it –I would be a billionaire because I know anyone reading this knows exactly what I mean. It was difficult for hubs to understand how I could be so overwhelmed with joy when we hadn’t even entered the park.

 

[mamamelody2]

Sounds like you guys had a great trip!
DH and I are going next month just the 2 of us, and our start will be the same. First afternoon/evening at Epcot, then BOG PPO ADR for our first full day. I hope we can do 7DMT twice like you did! Our plan also is to then go straight to Peter Pan. Hopefully we won't get lost! LOL.