Crazy, Last Minute Quick-ish Trip to WDW - A March 2016 Trip Report *Complete*

[kickpuncher305]

Trip Report Introduction


(Hi Dr Nick!)

But actually, welcome to my trip report! I have been writing a Disneyland Trip Report for my trip in January (http://disboards.com/threads/gradua...p-report-apr-16-update.3479536/#post-55565547) so I will be brief on my introduction before getting more trip specific. Apologies in advance as this post will be kinda text heavy but I'm sure it will get better on the next posts!

My name is Aaron and I graduated in December from University with a Bachelors of Science in Geology (which was the reason for my January Disneyland trip, a surprise grad present from my family). I have been to Disneyland six times (I think...) and this will be my third time to Walt Disney World. The last time I went was with my parents and sister in December 2013.


Left to Right: Mom, Sister, Dad and Me outside Expedition Everest in 2013


In line at Toy Story Midway Mania

However, this trip was going to be different than all others. So the backstory is my cousin (Prism, yes her real birth name) was attending a conference in Orland for Orthopaedic Trauma Surgery. What she didn't tell me was she was staying at/her conference was at Coronado Springs at WDW! Once she told me that, she asked if I wanted to join her for a few days down in WDW! For a ridiculous Disney geek from Canada, an opportunity to head down to Disney World doesn't happen everyday. However, I had spent the past two months looking for a job after graduating from University and I had finally gotten a retail job (not the best but for the job market we have I'll take it) and I didn't think I could get away so last minute (this offer to come down was less than a week before!). Usually I am super planned ahead for any trip but especially for a Disney trip. However, I thought, "When is the next time I'll ever get to go on a trip like this?". I plan on starting my master's program this fall and it looks like I am heading over to Germany so trips to Disney parks (except maybe Disneyland Paris...) won't be possible for the next couple years. I found some really decent flights and booked them to join my cousin down in WDW for three, very full park days !!!

This trip was going to be my first full experience with FP+ and Magic Bands. On our trip in 2013, we stayed off property and didn't have FP+ or Magic Bands (aside from our day at Animal Kingdom, where they were testing it and it worked great!). I was really excited to try it out so we bought our three day park hoppers and linked them to the My Disney Experience accounts. I then spent the next four days on the website and app constantly finding better and better fastpasses. I became addicted very quickly to finding the best possible times and attractions to use our fastpasses on. I found some really good fastpasses very last minute (like Seven Dwarves, Midway Mania, etc.) just by spamming the website every ten minutes. I also lucked out and got an early lunch ADR for Be Our Guest Restaurant for our last day!

Since my cousin was down their mostly for the conference, she would join me whenever possible but I would have my first experience with going solo in a Disney park (spoiler alert: It was actually quite fun and very different than travelling in a family!). Prism had been to WDW once when she was about 12 and she really wanted me to plan out as much as possible (which I of course had no problem with).

Our general plan for the three day trip:

Day 0 (March 5th) - Travel Day/Disney Springs
Day 1 (March 6th) - EPCOT (Prism could join me from about 1pm to 6pm)
Day 2 (March 7th) - Morning at Animal Kingdom/Afternoon at Hollywood Studios (Prism joins me from about 10am to 3pm)
Day 3 (March 8th) - Magic Kingdom (Prism joins me all day!!!)

I'll go into each day's plan more specifically on each day's trip entry. If you guys have any questions or any tips on improving my trip report, don't hesitate to let me know! I can't wait to share this crazy, last minute trip with all of you guys and gals! Between writing my Disneyland trip report and working (not in the retail job, Prism actually got me a job once we got back from the trip as a Research Assistant at the Hospital), I may not be very quick at updating this report but will do my best to keep it updated as possible!​

 

[lynnirene]

Sounds like fun! I'm in!

 

[kickpuncher305]

Day 0 (Sat March 5th, 2016): Travel Day (YYC---->MCO)

I'll try and keep this update relatively short since it acted 75% as a relatively boring travel day and 25% Disney Fun!

Seeing as this was such short notice for a trip, I was expecting it would be difficult to find decent flights from Calgary down to Orlando. Luckily it was before the crazy Spring Break rush during the middle and later parts of March so I was able to find a direct flight with WestJet leaving about 9am and getting in to Orlando at about 5pm. Normally coming from Western Canada down to Florida, the flights have you arriving late in the evening so it was a nice bonus to be able to get some Disney magic in on what was supposed to only be a travel day.

The night before my trip to Orlando, my Dad and I were lucky enough to get a chance to see Black Sabbath in concert. For a bunch of 60+ year old rockers, it was awesome! As much as an extra day in Florida would have been awesome, I was really happy I could see Black Sabbath one last time on their "retirement" tour (or so they say...)


Tiny picture of Black Sabbath taken from my Instagram account (You can almost make them out...)


I was originally going to see Frank Turner (British Punk/Folk singer) on Saturday night but I decided it was a necessary sacrifice to sell this ticket in order to get at least 3 full days down in WDW!

The next morning, I was up bright and early (7:00am-ish) but it didn't matter because I was going to Disney World!!!

Everything went very smoothly in Calgary and I was sitting on my direct flight to the magic!!!



Even with booking my flight so last minute, I was able to book an Exit Row Seat for no extra cost (Thanks WestJet!!!). Not only did I have an exit row seat with a crazy amount of leg room but there was nobody sitting in the middle seat!! It was probably the most comfortable I have been on a 4+ hour flight.



Picture of downtown Calgary


The flight went so well that we actually got in early, which means extra Disney time for the rest of the day!

This trip, even though it was my 3rd to WDW and 10th-ish to a Disney Park, was a trip of firsts for me. The first example of this was Disney's Magical Express. I stayed on property back in 2003-ish (you can see my over use of "ish" already ) but we did not use Magical Express (not 100% sure if it was even around/included at that point). I was super impressed how smooth it went for me, especially since I didn't have a MagicBand yet. I was quickly seen, shown to my line and got on my bus all within 45 minutes of arriving in Orlando (it also helped that I only brought a carry on bag and my backpack).



I really liked Magical Express for picking up from MCO (I'll talk more later about some issues that arose for our transfer back to the airport). The cartoons and trivia was awesome and it was really fun to be around so many other people who were also crazy excited about going to WDW. Another lucky break was that Coronado Springs was the first stop on the route so I was dropped off around 4:30 at my hotel for the next three days.

The next first for this trip was staying at any moderate resort (specifically Coronado Springs). I was super impressed with CS as I had previously heard some not so great things about it. However, since returning from my whirlwind trip, it seems that I am seeing some far more positive (and rightfully so) reviews of CS. I somehow managed to literally take 0 pictures of anything at CS so I think I'll link Dis Unplugged's 7 in 7 on Coronado Springs here:

as they do a really good overview of the resort incase others are interested in it as well (or if you have any other questions, feel free to ask and I'll try and answer them )

I checked in at the front desk and actually ran into Prism (my cousin who was down there for a conference for those of you who skipped my intro ) and we went on the hike that it was to our room (only really drawback of CS was the long walk to our room but it was extremely warm every day we were there so I won't complain too much). The rooms at CS are really nice and quite large which was a nice surprise. I tend not to spend too much time in hotel rooms or at resorts when on a trip this quick to WDW but next trip (of course I am planning already!) I would love to have an non-park day to spend at the pool and maybe go check out some of the Deluxe Resorts I've never been to before.

Anywho, Prism had the rest of the night off so we decided to go check out Disney Springs for dinner. In 2013 when I was at WDW last, Downtown Disney was under crazy construction and there was not much to do/eat at the time. It was probably one of the only underwhelming experiences of that trip. However, I had heard pretty positive things about Disney Springs and I was very impressed with the changes that have been made so far. I will definitely like to check it out once all the construction is done

Unfortunately it seemed like every other person in Central Florida decided to go to Disney Springs as well. Every place we tried to get into had at least an hour wait...except Jock Lindsey's Hanger Bar!



We actually walked right in and found a table directly on the railing of the patio out back, which was great since it was so nice outside! I had heard mixed reviews about the food but we had quite a good experience food-wise.




From Top to Bottom:
Lao Che's Revenge, Maduro Brown Ale (Cigar City), Tanis Tacos and
Dr. Elsa's Shrimp BLT Flatbread

I'm not the biggest Shrimp fan but all of the other food items were quite good. I chose the Maduro Brown Ale because I had heard Cigar City Brewing mentioned quite a lot on the Disney Hipster's Podcast (highly recommend but most certainly not suitable for young kids, those who have listened know what I am talking about). It was a really nice beer and quite reasonable as well.



The theming at JLHB was amazing and really reminded me of Trader Sam's at the Disneyland Hotel (which I went to in January on my last Disneyland Trip). I would most certainly go back for some drinks and potentially some food as well (especially if everywhere else was as busy as this time).

We walked around Disney Springs for a while, Prism bought some LEGO for her younger nephew and we hopped on the bus back to Coronado Springs. Another benefit of Coronado Springs is its relatively centrally located (especially compared to off-site or All Star Resorts) so no bus ride seemed to take more than fifteen minutes.

We made it back to CS, picked up some quick breakfast stuff for the morning and headed back to out room. Next morning, Prism had some conference business to attend to until about 1pm so I was about to have my first real experience as a solo traveler at a Disney Park (spoiler alert: I really enjoyed it!)

Next Update: EPCOT Morning AKA Test Track, SOAT and Solo Touring



​

 

[kickpuncher305]

Day 1 (March 6th, 2016): EPCOT Part One

FP+ Reservations for March 6th
Spaceship Earth - 1:25pm to 2:25pm
Seas with Nemo and Friends - 2:25pm to 3:25pm
Mission: Space - 3:25 to 4:25pm


So after a full day of flying and exploring Disney Springs, one would expect to be quite tired the next morning. However, I was wide awake as soon as my alarm went off because I was off to EPCOT!

After quickly eating the breakfast we got the night before, I was off to EPCOT while Prism had a full morning of convention related stuff but would join me later in the afternoon (hence the timing of the Fastpass+ reservations).

It was a really nice and warm March day so i didn't mind waiting for the bus as I got my first real experience of the trip of warm Florida sun. Once on the bus, I was off to EPCOT.

Side Story: I spent last Summer (2015) working at a Science and Engineering Summer Camp and one of our activities that I designed was to create a futuristic city. So of course I found a clip of Walt Disney outlining EPCOT
(Found Here:

).
I make it a personal mission to try and sneak Disney Parks related stuff into wherever I can and I was definitely successful here. And now back to the regularly scheduled trip report!


Obligatory Spaceship Earth Photo (the first of many)

I made it to the front entrance of EPCOT about 15 minutes before opening and while it was pretty busy, it was nothing compared to our last trip right after Christmas in 2013. As soon as the gates (well, no longer gates because of Magic Bands but you know what I mean) I followed about 75% of all the people in front of me to Test Track.


Bubbles blowing from Trash Can


With Soarin' being closed, I really thought that Test Track would be crazy busy as it is really the only other "thrill ride" open. Again, it was pretty popular during the busiest time of day but I really got lucky line-wise.



I was one of the first 50 or so people in line for Test Track that day! I made it into the first design room that was opened for the day! It's stuff like this that totally makes it worth losing sleep for! I was worried before because I couldn't get a Fastpass+ reservation for Test Track (since no Soarin' reservations, it seemed like everyone chose Test Track instead for Tier A FP+).


Test Track Design #1 (I forgot to record after the attraction what it's score was but I want to say around 200-ish total)

I have always enjoyed Test Track (especially with it's unofficial Tron update) and the outside portion is always really fun (especially at night). I did notice that the former "crash-test" wall that opens up was continually opened for the whole day. Not sure if that is permanent or just wasn't working that day but it was the only draw back of Test Track.

After Test Track I decided to try an attraction I had never done before this trip...


Sum of All Thrills!!!

For as long as I have gone to WDW, I had read about SOAT in the Unofficial Guide Books but never found the time to try it as we usually didn't have time to experience Innoventions. I'm glad I prioritized it for early in the Morning because it was a really fun! For those who don't know, SOAT let's you design your own roller coaster track and test it out.


To test your roller coaster, you use these contraptions called a Kuka Arm (same vehicle as what's used for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey at Universal) with "visors" that project you track in front of you. Very cool ride and I literally walked right into the pre-show while later in the day the line up got up to 45 minutes.




After SOAT, I went over to Mission: Space for Orange Team training (which was also pretty much a walk on). I know many people don't like Mission: Space but I have always really enjoyed it. Maybe I am a sucker for the feeling of the liftoff sequence or that fact that I am super interested in space exploration but a trip to EPCOT wouldn't be complete for me without some orange team training.


It's also now a joke between me and my sister about the sheer number of times the cast members ask you if you want to "chicken out" of Orange Team. I totally understand why they have to do it (legally speaking) but it pretty much makes the lead up to the ride scarier than the ride itself. I made sure to take a picture for my sister of our favourite Launch Ticket they hand you.

After Mission: Space, I saw that the single rider line for Test Track was pretty much non-existent so I decided to hop on Test Track for a 2nd time in just over an hour! Even luckier than that, I was handed this beauty...


1st time being the chosen one of the trip (and certainly not the last). The only bad part of single rider on Test Track is the inability to design your own car (you can choose from already designed ones but it's just not the same...) but its a trade off for a maybe 5 minute wait vs. 45 minutes.

After having a great time in Future World East, it was time to make it my way across to Future World West!

​

 

[kickpuncher305]

Day 1: EPCOT Part One Continued


With Soarin' being closed, I wanted to make sure I got to ride Living with the Land at least once before it got busier later in the day. It was about a thirty second wait and I even got the entire back row of the boat all to myself! I took a lot of pictures of LwtL but will just share a few of my favs.









For anyone who thinks Living with the Land is just a boring/educational boat ride, it's definitely educational but certainly not boring. I find it super relaxing and enjoyable.

Since their is not much else open in the Land Pavilion, I made my way over to the Seas Pavilion to watch Turtle Talk with Crush. Waiting in the room before getting to chat with Crush, I was surprised to see so many cool aquariums with some really unique fish/creatures.


Massive Sea Snake


Creepy Looking Eels (I think they are eels? Definitely creepy looking whatever they are)

I experienced Turtle Talk with Crush on my last trip to Disneyland (in California Adventure's Animation Academy) with my Dad as we waited for World of Color: Celebrate. I was blown away at home cool and funny this out of the way attraction was and it was so empty that I got to talk with Crush for a bit! I've now made it a mandatory attraction to experience at any park that has it and EPCOT is no exception.

After Turtle Talk, it was about 11:30am (I know, so much stuff done already!) so I went back to the Land Pavilion to Sunshine Seasons (maybe my favourite quick service location in WDW, definitely in EPCOT) for a really good sandwich (Turkey and Monterey Jack on Ciabatta) that was recommended by Disney Tourist Blog.


As you can see, it's a good size sandwich with some nice citrus coleslaw for only $10.49. Also, it's much healthier than many of the other options that can be found at a theme park.



After lunch, I went over to experience Ellen's Energy Adventure. Another ride many people don't like but I really enjoy. However I agree with many people that it is definitely in need of a large scale refurbishment/update/re-imagining. I still really enjoy it and walked in right as the pre-show was starting so I got the full Ellen experience.

Around this time, I got a message on Whatsapp (can't use data in US as a Canadian on a bad cell plan as it is) from Prism that she was just coming up to EPCOT so I made my way back to the entrance of the park with a quick stop off on the way...


Club Cool! Another first of this trip was trying all the flavours (and yes I mean ALL FLAVOURS) at Club Cool. I think my favourites would either be Inca Kola from Peru or Fanta from Thailand or Greece. Anyone who has tried ALL THE DRINKS at Club Cool know exactly what my least favourite drink was...

Beverly. WHAT IS THIS POISON?!? Literally the worst tasting thing I've ever had. I can't even repeat what I said/thought when I tried it as it was very NSFW. Let's say, I did not enjoy it. I did however get my cousin to try it on her trip about a month after mine and she video taped her reaction (spoiler alert: she hated it as well).

After my brush with death via Beverly, I made my way to the front of the park to meet with Prism. I'll end Part 1 of my day at EPCOT here but rest assured, it was only about 12:30pm and there was still a lot more to happen on my first full day at WDW!

Next Update: How many Fastpass+ reservations can I use in one day and buying beer for my 30 year old cousin because someone forgot her ID!

​

 

[kickpuncher305]

Day 1 Part 2: MORE EPCOT!!!

Hello Once Again!!! When we last left off, I was just meeting up with Prism at the front of the park. Unfortunately, her conference ran a bit late and she had a bit of a delay with the Disney buses so we didn't meet up until about 1:30pm. However, it actually worked out great because we had our first Fastpass+ reservation for the closest possible attraction (and one of my favourites!)...


Spaceship Earth!!!

Of all the parks (especially on this trip), I feel like Fastpass+ is the least useful at EPCOT. Outside of Test Track and Soarin', very few of the attractions have really long stand by waits. Case in point, the maybe 10 minute line we skipped over for Spaceship Earth. However, I still adore Spaceship Earth and it was really fun to experience it with Prism who had never ridden Spaceship Earth (she really liked it as well).


I tried to get a cool picture of just the pattern on the outside of Spaceship Earth, but the stupid bottom right messed it up!

After Spaceship Earth, we headed over to Sum of All Thrills (again for me, first time for Prism) and made an really fun rollercoaster. It's super fun and such a hidden gem of an attraction. I really hope that the rumours are untrue that it is soon going away because I will for sure make Sum of All Thrills a priority whenever I go to EPCOT in the future.

We then exited Innoventions and saw that the Standby line for Test Track was only 15 MINUTES!!!!
Not single rider, not fastpass but STAND BY!!!
No idea if maybe it had just re-opened or what was the cause for the short line but I saw lines well over an hour earlier in the day.
It actually worked out great because I couldn't get FP+ reservations within the time period that Prism could be in the park for the day so it was nice that she could still get the full Test Track experience.


Somehow, the car we made was very similar car to what I made earlier in the morning. As always, Test Track was fun and Prism really enjoyed it as well!


Attempted Selfie #1 (I have extremely poor selfie skills at the best of time and the over a foot difference in height made it even more difficult)

We had some time to kill before our next FP+ reservation so we decided to hang out in the Seas Pavilion.


Upside down Dolphin (not sure why but the dolphins seemed to love swimming like this)


Feeding time for the Rays


Probably the largest Ray I have ever seen! Literally the size of three of the other Rays

After spending some quality time with the fish, it was time for our FP+ reservation for Seas with Nemo and Friends (another kinda useless FP+, at least on this day).


I feel like I may be in the minority of people who have experienced both but I think I prefer this Nemo attraction compared to the Nemo Subs in Disneyland. I like being in the subs but the loading process takes forever and the line is rarely ever under 30-45 minutes while the Seas takes about five minutes to walk the queue. Once in the attraction, I really enjoy both attractions as I'm a big Nemo fan.

After going under the sea (wait...wrong park), the next show for Turtle Talk with Crush was just letting people in so we scooted right in and watched this great show!

After Turtle Talk, it was time for our last scheduled FP+ reservation of the day at Mission: Space.


At least this FP+ reservation was put to somewhat good use as the Standby time for Orange Team was 30 minutes, still not too bad of a line for Mission: Space but we didn't have to worry about it as we pretty much walked right into the attraction.


After Mission: Space, we went over to schedule another FP+ for both of us at the kiosk close to Future World East. There weren't many available for 2 reservations at that time and I wanted to make sure I got on Journey into Imagination once this trip since I missed it last trip. It was also closed for most of the morning and had a 30 minute wait once it did open. I'm just trying to give my self support for using FP+ on Journey Into Imagination . The reservation was for about an hour later so we decided to do a quick lap of World Showcase before Prism had to return to the conference later that afternoon.​

 

[kickpuncher305]

Day 1 Part 2 (EPCOT) Continued: World Showcase

I think this entry will probably be just World Showcase as even though we were only there for a couple hours, I think we got some good pictures and had a really good time. Before we went into World Showcase, I bought an Easter Egg hunt map for World Showcase. For those that don't know, it's a map with stickers of different eggs that you can find in each pavilion. You also get it verified and you can get a prize (this year's were nice sized Disney character themed easter eggs). All total I think it costs $5-10 dollars and I highly recommend it as it's a fun way to go around World Showcase. Another tip is that you don't need to find all the eggs in order to collect your prize (which was good news for me) but you can actually do it right away and get your prize. I got a Stitch Egg which I gave to my sister (along with a tiny little Stitch plush I found in Animal Kingdom the next day) and we were off to walk around World Showcase (clockwise of course!).


Mexico


Norway, which was super under construction for the new Frozen Ever After ride. It was too bad that it was so under construction as Norway is usually one of my favourite pavilions in World Showcase. We ended up grabbing a Lefse (Potato Flatbread rolled with a Sweet Cinnamon Butter) and a Sweet Pretzel with Almonds at Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe in Norway (Truth time: I 100% had to look up the name of this bakery but can you blame me?). Both were really good but I think I liked the Sweet Pretzel a little more.


Cool sand sculpture promoting Jungle Book (which I haven't seen yet but really want to...)


Next stop was Germany. You can see it's quite a bit busier here compared to Future World which made our trip around World Showcase a little slower than expected. We decided about here that we wanted to spend more time in World Showcase as opposed to run through it to make the FP+ for Journey Into Imagination. We also decided that it was warm enough out to enjoy a nice German beer. However, Prism forgot her ID back in her purse in the room. So I luckily had brought mine and was able to grab a couple beers for use while she waited looking over the lagoon. We continued on our round trip journey around World Showcase while enjoying our refreshing German beer.


Obviously, I didn't take pictures in each pavilion (you'll have to ask Aaron from March 2016 as to why...) but next one I have was Italy!


I'm not sure if these are there permanently or not (since it was Flower and Garden Festival) but there were some really cool looking bonsai trees outside of the Japan Pavilion that were upwards of like 60 years old!

It appears that March Aaron decided that was enough World Showcase pictures for now. We did end up walking through France, United Kingdom and Canada (our home and native land ) before Prism had to head out for the evening.

My one main souvenir I was buying for myself this trip was completing my collection of Starbucks You Are Here mugs for the US disney parks. Before this trip, I had the two from Disneyland and I wanted to complete my collection. On Prism's way out of the park, we headed over to Starbucks for me to buy the mug and Prism took it back to the room for me so I didn't have to take it around for the evening.

After Prism headed out, I made my way over to the Imagination Pavilion for Journey Into Imagination.


Remember how I said the JII had a 30 minute all day and that's why I used FP+? It was now literally a walk on . Of course I still used my FP+, I'm not crazy!

It's kinda crazy how little I remember of this ride from when I went on it our first family trip to WDW. I remember the queue mostly (which was the same as I remember) but the ride itself was almost like a totally new experience. It's definitely not my favourite attraction in EPCOT and definitely not worth using a FP+ on but it was a fine enough attraction. No need to experience it more than once a trip.

Since I was now booking FP+ one at a time, I made my way to the closest kiosk and booked a single FP+ spot for Test Track at 7:20pm (it was about 4:30 at this point of the day). There was still one attraction that I had never experienced on any trip to EPCOT before this trip that I still needed to ride...


The inside of the Mexico Pavilion!!! I think I was scared of going inside the building when I was younger and we didn't have time last trip so I had to make sure I was able to make it here this trip.

Since I had never been inside the building, I had never ridden the Gran Fiesta Tour so I made my way over. This was probably one of my longest waits of the day at almost 20 minutes!

I really enjoy any Disney boat ride attraction and this was no exception! After my tour through Mexico, it was time for an early dinner. My eyes had spotted something that really looked good before entering Mexico so I backtracked to this Flower and Garden stand.


On the right: Jamaican Braised Beef and Rice
On the left: Jerk-spiced Chicken and coleslaw (I think?)

I was not very hungry so these two dishes was the perfect size for what I needed. Both were good but the Jerk-spiced Chicken was AMAZING! I kinda wish I would have got a double serving of it instead of the Beef but oh well.

After my quick dinner, I decided to search more for the hidden Easter Eggs.

​

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[kickpuncher305]

Day 1 Part 2 (EPCOT) Continued...Again

I'm on a roll with this update now so I might as well finish it up. I decided to go counter-clockwise around World Showcase to search for some hidden Easter Eggs.

I made a critical error in not trying to find these eggs earlier in the day because as I started looking, it started to get dark outside, which amplified the degree of difficulty in finding these eggs...at least that's my excuse for finding only a few eggs.


Can you see the hidden egg?


There it is!


Figment Egg up in the window in France

I found I think six eggs total before it became completely dark and impossible to find any more eggs. I decided to drown my sorrows with a Safari Amber beer from the Outpost (the exact area where I gave up looking for eggs).

After I finished walking around World Showcase and finished my beer, it was time for my FP+ return at Test Track.


At least my designed car looks different from the last two one's I made.

After my fourth trip on Test Track that day, I saw that the single rider line was completely empty so I made it an even five times on Test Track in one day (not too bad I would say).

I then booked a FP+ for myself at Mission: Space for literally that exact time, so I walked over and pretty much walked on Mission: Space one last time for this day/trip.

I really wanted to make sure I saw Illuminations that night since I had never seen it before but still had under an hour before it started at 9pm. I didn't care too much about finding a perfect spot so I made my way to Spaceship Earth for one last journey through time.


Another walk on (kinda a theme for the day) for one of my favourite rides in all of Disney. After I exited SE, I had about ten minutes before Illuminations was going to start. I walked quickly (but never running!) to just past Canada and found a pretty good spot (considering I walked up about five minutes before it started) to watch Illuminations.




Aside from the pole right in front of me, I was pretty happy with this spot as I could see everything really well. Obviously not the best spot but for only coming 5 minutes before it started, I can't complain too much.



I'm so happy I stayed for Illuminations! I can't believe that I had never seen it before in my two previous trips to WDW. I will for sure make it a priority to see any time I go back!

Another good thing about my spot for Illuminations was that I was quite close to the exit of World Showcase so as it was over, I boogied out of World Showcase and beat most people to the bus stop! I made it back to Coronado Springs and pretty quickly fell asleep as soon as I made it back to the room. This worked out really well because I had an early morning as well as a full day trying to experience two parks as much as possible in one day!

Next Update: AK/DHS! AKA Who knew it could be so warm in March in Florida?​

 

[Terra Nova guy]

My name is Aaron and I graduated in December from University with a Bachelors of Science in Geology

Cool! I have a B. Sc. in Geology too!

For a ridiculous Disney geek from Canada,

And look at that! I'm also a ridiculous Disney geek from Canada It seems like we have a lot in common! Except I'm from the east coast. Looking forward to reading your report.

 

[kickpuncher305]

Cool! I have a B. Sc. in Geology too!


And look at that! I'm also a ridiculous Disney geek from Canada It seems like we have a lot in common! Except I'm from the east coast. Looking forward to reading your report.

Woohoo! Fellow Geology/Disney Geeks of Canada assemble!!! Thanks for reading!

 

[kickpuncher305]

Day 2 Part 1: Animal Kingdom Morning

Wow, it's been awhile since I updated this trip report. Sorry about the long delay but work for me has been super busy and I haven't had time to sit down and add to the trip report. With today being a rainy Saturday, I thought this would be a great time to talk about my second full park day in WDW.

After the full day (rope drop to end of Illuminations) at EPCOT, Animal Kingdom had Extra Magic Hours at 8am so of course I had to take advantage of extra time in the parks with how short this trip was. Prism was unfortunately busy until about 10am this morning so we planned on meeting at AK when she was free, spend a couple hours there and then park hop over to Hollywood Studios, where I booked our fastpasses for the day. I got on the bus at Coronado Springs around 7:45 (a little later than I would like but oh well) for possibly my favourite park at WDW, Animal Kingdom!


While in line to enter AK, I finally saw my first look at the Avatar construction. While not the biggest fan of Avatar in WDW (although not as against it as some other people...), the floating mountains look absolutely incredible and I can't wait to see what the whole area will look like.



Once in the park itself, I noticed how it seemed like many other people decided to take advantage of EMH this morning. But as busy as it looked in the Oasis, it really wasn't too bad at all. The first destination for the morning was...


Harambe, Africa! And when you're in Africa early in the morning, it means only one thing...


Kilimanjaro Safari! One of my favourite attractions in all of WDW, I always start mornings in Animal Kingdom when possible on a safari. The wait was pretty much the length of walking through the queue (about 5 minutes) and then I was off on the first adventure of the day! Unfortunately, it seemed like all of the animals were on the other side of the vehicle so I don't have too many pictures of this safari trip but there may be another trip on Kilimanjaro later in this trip report (SPOILERS).


Wildebeests, maybe? I thought it was funny/cute how literally all of them were within maybe 5 to 10 feet of each other while grazing.


Elephant!


Zebras!

There were also a bunch of rhinos, giraffes, hippos and even some lions but the pictures either were blurry or the people on that side of the vehicle were in the shot but rest assured, lots of animals were seen on this trip to Africa!

After finishing up with the safari, I headed over to Asia.


The detail in both Asia and Africa is incredible and is probably why this is one of my favourite (if not the favourite) Disney theme park. And of course when in Asia, one has to go to Everest!


It was so sunny and the sun was right over top of Everest so getting pictures of it was a little difficult. I tried to use single rider but it wasn't opened yet so I "had" to use standby line. I by "had" to, I was really happy because I actually got to walk through one of the best queue for any Disney attraction!



Again with the crazy cool details everywhere, makes walking though the quite length queue very enjoyable. I soon found out the reason there was no singe rider yet was because the wait time was once again how long it took to walk the line (5 to 10 minutes with me stopping to take pictures and look at all of the details of the queue). I'm going to sound like a broken record but Expedition Everest is one of my favourite attractions in all of WDW (see a theme coming about AK?) and this time was not exception.


​

 

[kickpuncher305]

Day 2: Animal Kingdom Morning Continued

After successfully escaping the Yeti, it was off to Dinoland, USA for a trip to save some dinos.


Before I made into Dinosaur, I noticed something on the ground (any guesses?)...


MICKEY! It's really cool that just in the middle of the ground is this awesome water Mickey!

Once I had sufficiently admired the Mickey, I made it to Dinosaur for another sub-10 minute line up. With how busy it looked when I got to Animal Kingdom this morning, I was able to accomplish the 3 major attractions in just over an hour. Definitely worth the lack of sleep!


As someone with a degree in Geology, I love this ride but especially the queue. When my family went to WDW in 2013, I had just finished a course in paleobiology so I was able to really appreciate all of the fossils (not just the massive dinosaur fossils, even though they are awesome as well!).


Apologies for the blurry picture but I wanted to share a hidden secret in the queue of Dinosaur (apologies if you already know it, skip the next small paragraph if you want to... I won't be mad!). See the three coloured tubes (red, yellow and white). Its hard to see in this picture but there is some writing on them. The writing is the chemical formulas for ketchup, mustard and mayo respectively. These tubes were placed in here because when the attraction was Countdown to Extinction, it was sponsored by McDonalds. Hence the condiment secret hidden in the queue.

While I don't enjoy it quite as much as it's West Coast counterpart (Indiana Jones Adventure), I still really like Dinosaur and make sure to do it a couple times every trip. On my first trip to WDW when I was about six or seven, I was terrified of Dinosaur and rode pretty much the entire ride with either my eyes closed or with my head between my legs haha. I'm pretty sure the on-ride photo made it look like I wasn't even on the ride with my head covered.

After Dinosaur, I went over to Primeval Whirl for a quick and enjoyable spin before heading back to the main entrance to meet up with Prism. Unfortunately she was delayed waiting for an Animal Kingdom bus to show up at Coronado Springs so I had some extra time to kill. I decided to walk around and take a look at some of the animal exhibits around the park.



Again, apologies for the blurry picture but I went to see some of the monkeys in Asia. If you can see the yellow-white monkey, that is the mom monkey with a tiny, 2 week old baby in her arms. As I was admiring how adorable these monkeys were, a cast member came up to me and we started to chat about the monkeys and that's when he pointed out the little baby in it's mom's arms. After enjoying watching the monkeys for awhile, I headed closer to the front of the park to be close by when Prism made it to the park (after of course buying my AK Starbucks mug, which I am using right now!).


Sea Otters playing on land!


Parrots!


Possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen! Lemurs sunning themselves on a rock while leaning on each other!

I soon got a text from Prism saying she just walking up to entrance of AK so I left the cute lemurs and went to meet her!

​

 

[kickpuncher305]

Day 2: Animal Kingdom Morning Part 3

I met up with Prism just after 10am and we had only about 2 hours in AK before we would have to park hop over to Hollywood Studios. We wasted no time and headed back over to Asia to use single rider for Expedition Everest, which took about twenty minutes as opposed to 45 minutes for the stand by line.


Much better and less solar-flarey picture of Everest


Attempted selfie #2 of trip: also not very successful

Prism absolutely loved EE (as did I) and we would have definitely done it many more times if we had more time at Animal Kingdom. We headed over to Dinosaur and it was starting to get way busier in the park with Dinosaur having about a 30 minute wait, which was not too bad. I unfortunately didn't get a picture of it but I was gifted with a red wait time card, which made waiting in line a little better.

After saving the Iguanodon (again for me), we grabbed a couple of frozen bananas and headed over to Kilimanjaro Safari for what would I believe would be the longest wait of the entire trip. I believe it was posted at 45 minutes but ended up being closer to an hour, which seems about standard for mid-day during non-peak season. It's too bad that the longest park of the queue is not the most interesting but it was still soon enough that we would be boarding our safari vehicle.


Why not another elephant!


Grazing Zebras


Really active lions!

As good as my first trip on Kilimanjaro Safari was that morning, this one was absolutely amazing! Along with the pictures I had we saw baby rhinos, a leopard, a bunch of hippos and the really active lions. I was super happy with how awesome of a trip Prism had on Kilimanjaro and it was definitely a trip highlight for both of us.

We had fastpasses at Hollywood Studios and the wait for Kilimanjaro was longer than expected so we boogied out of Animal Kingdom and caught a bus to Hollywood Studios!

Next Update: An Extremely Hot But Surprisingly Fun Afternoon/Evening in Hollywood Studios

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[vleeth]

Love your pics, especially the failed selfies.

 

[kickpuncher305]

Day 2 Part 2: Hollywood Studios

Hello once again and apologies for the lengthy break between posts. Work has been crazy, I've been enjoying what little summer vacation I've been able to get and I am getting ready to move to GERMANY in a few weeks so life has been a little too crazy to add to my trip report. However, I have a few days off with not much to do so I decided to at least finish up my 2nd fun filled day at WDW.

When I last left off, Prism and I had just left Animal Kingdom on our way to Hollywood Studios. Unfortunately, it took probably 30 minutes for a bus to DHS to show up so what little time Prism had at DHS (she had a presentation for her conference that late afternoon/evening) was cut even shorter.



Since we had an early morning at Animal Kingdom, I booked our FP+ for DHS that afternoon. We started off by checking into the Hollywood Tower Hotel...





Funny side story: The only ride that Prism was the least bit apprehensive about going on was the Tower of Terror. It was super funny to hear someone who has gone bungie jumping around the world to be so scared of a Disney attraction. However once she saw the young children in front of us in the FP+ line, she became much less afraid to ride the Tower of Terror. After riding the DCA-version of Tower of Terror many times more compared to experiencing the Florida version, I can for sure say that I like the Florida version much more than it's California counterpart.

By the time we had finished ToT, we had to choose one more attraction that Prism could ride before she had to leave for the rest of the day. We decided to do single rider for Rockin' Roller Coaster, which seemed like a great idea until we got to here:



Where we waited for almost 30 minutes

Note for Single Riders: if a ride vehicle has an even number of seats, it makes waiting much longer!

However, it's one of my favourite roller coasters and we both had a great time!

Prism and I said goodbye for the rest of the day and I continued on my way to the 2nd FP+ of the day: Star Tours!



This was still during the time that the Jakku scene was automatically the first destination, which was also the case for my trip to Disneyland earlier in the year. I am glad that it has been added but also glad that it is now just part of the randomized sequence as seeing it over and over while other options exist was a little frustrating.

After Star Tours, I headed over to Muppet Vision 3D. At DCA in California, Muppet Vision 3D has been closed the last two trips our family had so I made it a priority to see it at least once this trip (especially since it is one of my favourite 3D movies and I am a huge Muppets fan). Unfortunately no pictures taken but needless to say it was awesome as per usual.

By this time, it was getting to around time for some food and it was also crazy hot! I made sure that I went somewhere that had some decent food as well as somewhere with AC. The ABC Commissary checked off both of these options for me (as well as some TV's for entertainment) and I quickly got a Chicken Club Sandwich with Fries for $9.99.



For a Quick Service sandwich at DHS, I was quite happy with the meal! It also didn't hurt that I finally got some AC after being outside in the heat fall day.

As this trip was probably my last at the somewhat original DHS, I made sure to walk around the Streets of America portion of the park before it closed.


I'm really glad I just walked around the Streets of America for about 20 minutes as very quick afterwards my trip, the area was closed and a lot of this area was demolished. I didn't take too many pictures but I tried to just enjoy one last meander through this area.

I had this extra time in DHS because I was waiting for the next Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular to start. This was one of our families favourite attractions on our first trip to WDW and I was making sure that I got to see it again.


It took everything in me to not shout out "STEVE!" during this part (see Full House's excellent episode at WDW and DJ Tanner's experience with this part of the show...)





While I don't think this show has changed at all since we first saw it all those years ago (or even since it was first created), I am kinda happy its the same since I enjoy both the show and the Indiana Jones movies so much.

NEXT UPDATE: A Fun Filled Evening at DHS with many of my favourite attractions in all of WDW!!!
​

 

[kickpuncher305]

Day 2 Part 3: Evening at MGM...I mean Hollywood Studios!

This seems to be a theme of this trip report but apologies for the lengthy break in between updates.

Quick life update: I have officially moved to Germany for the next two years! I am getting my masters in geoscience in the city of Tübingen, which is in the south of Germany. I've been in Germany for a couple weeks so far and have just completed my first week of classes. It looks like I will be quite busy so unfortunately it may be some more long gaps in between updates for the trip report but I will keep trying to do my best to update it!

Anywho, when I last left off I had just finished watching the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. I had lucked upon one of the toughest FP+ reservations about a week before the trip and it was up next...


Midway Mania!!! I am far from an expert at the ride but still enjoy it everytime I get to go on it. I don't like it near enough to wait in line for it for hours but getting the FP+ for it allowed me to ride it anyways!

After TSMM, I had a little down time after booking a FP+ for Rock n Roller Coaster (no waiting for 30 minutes in single rider this time!) so I went into One Man's Dream for a quick walkthrough.






Disneyland Paris's Castle! (Side note: Being in Germany, my parents are looking at meeting me somewhere for about a week in March 2017 when we are both off of school. So naturally I suggested Paris for a couple days and then Disneyland Paris after that! I am already excited just at the possibility of visiting a brand-new-to-me Disney park!)



I love the models that they have made of all of the different parks from different Disney parks around the world (as you can see by my pictures above). I hope that when One Man's Dream unfortunately closes in Hollywood Studios, all of the amazing parts of it can be saved and put somewhere else for people to enjoy.

Next up was the Great Movie Ride, which finally wasn't a 45 minute wait (which it seemed like it had constantly since I arrived at the park).


I think Hollywood Studios is an underrated dusk-time park as I think the sunset and all the lights on the buildings looked amazing!








While I wish the on ride narrator did more of the actual narrating (as it used to be prior to the AMC sponsorship), I really like the improvements that have been made to both the pre-show/queue as well as the finale video. As much as I love the Great Movie Ride, it is definitely in need of either a major update or to be changed (maybe the Great Mickey Ride?). I would probably prefer a full year or more refurb with new scenes, updated animatronics, etc.


​

 

[kickpuncher305]

After my ride through the movies, it was finally time for my FP+ reservation at Rock n Roller Coaster!


Another part of DHS that I love at dusk/night time is the outside of Rock n Roller Coaster!


Pre-show before the "shocking" gesture by Steven Tyler was removed



It was much quicker by using FastPass as opposed to standing in Single Rider line. I'm sure some people were looking at me when I said only one rider as the regular line for the attraction was well over an hour but only about 5 minutes for a single FastPass rider!

My plan was to go a grab a seat for Fantasmic after my ride with Aerosmith but I was honestly too tired to sit and wait by myself for about forty five minutes before Fantasmic even started so I decided to ride Tower of Terror instead!


It was about a ten minute posted wait for ToT, which was very hard to not pass up. This is about where in the lobby I stopped while walking through the rest of the line! As per usual, ToT was amazing and I was perfectly content with wrapping my day up but I then saw that it was still a ten minute posted wait time for ToT! I quickly walked (but NO RUNNING!) back through the queue to pretty much the exact same spot where I was stopped last time.



This would be in fact my last attraction of the day as Fantasmic was well underway by this point and the wait time was now up to about 45 minutes for ToT. I was thinking of staying for the relatively new at the time Star Wars Fireworks but was still very tired so I decided to just walk slowly out of the park and enjoy my last few moments in the somewhat original DHS (I don't think I will be getting back to WDW prior to the opening of Star Wars Land,etc. but who knows...).


Until Next Time ToT!


Love the entrance here as well as the almost identical copy in California Adventure!

I made my way to the Coronado Springs Bus Stop when all of a sudden I heard a loud BOOM behind me so I quickly turned around to see...


The fireworks at the end of Fantasmic! It was very surprising but I could see the fireworks quite well from where the bus stop was so I had some quick entertainment while waiting for the bus back to the resort.

Eventually the bus came and I made my way back to our hotel room. Prism had actually won a prestigious award at the conference she was presenting at so we celebrated with some beer and pizza! While we were eating, we were surprised to hear fireworks going off quite close to the resort. We ran outside and were able to watch the Star Wars fireworks from just outside our room! What a cool treat!

After returning to our room, we were trying to find something to watch while we were eating and celebrating Prism's award and stumbled upon the bedtime story channel with Duffy!


It was honestly one of the highlights of the trip: sitting in bed, eating Pizza, drinking a beer and watching the bedtime story! It was actually too perfect! We must have been watching for one of the last time's they were showing the bedtime story because pretty soon afterwards we got to watch Disney cartoon shorts! We watched for a while before we both fell asleep from an extremely busy day!

Next Update (whenever that may be...): A Full Day of Fun at the Magic Kingdom!!!​

 

[Terra Nova guy]

Quick life update: I have officially moved to Germany for the next two years! I am getting my masters in geoscience in the city of Tübingen, which is in the south of Germany. I've been in Germany for a couple weeks so far and have just completed my first week of classes.

Very cool. Best of luck with the Masters.

So naturally I suggested Paris for a couple days and then Disneyland Paris after that! I am already excited just at the possibility of visiting a brand-new-to-me Disney park!)

I hope you get to go to DLP. I lived in Scotland in 1997-98 and I visited DLP then. It was great to experience a different Disney park. I'd love to go back now since so much has changed in almost 20 years.

I hope that when One Man's Dream unfortunately closes in Hollywood Studios, all of the amazing parts of it can be saved and put somewhere else for people to enjoy.

I hope they can save some of it too, especially because I sadly never went into One Man's Dream, which I really regret. Hopefully I can visit again before it goes away.

stumbled upon the bedtime story channel with Duffy!

I only discovered they even had that channel since reading these trip reports after my last trip. That would have been such a good way to put my youngest daughter to sleep at night.

 

[kickpuncher305]

Day 3 (Final Day ): Magic Kingdom

Oh my god, I can't believe its been since October that I've updated this trip report!
First of all, my apologies for anyone reading this for the insane delay. Quick update on what I've been up to the last almost six month...
Just about to start the 2nd semester of my Masters program in Germany (I survived my first semester!!!) tomorrow morning, which is very exciting. In more Disney-related news, my family and I were able to go to Disneyland Paris at the end of March 2017 and I think I may write another trip report on that 3 day trip (we will see if I can manage to do it a bit more regularly than this one...).

Anywho, back to March 2016...

We woke up quite early on the last day of our trip because it was a full day at Magic Kingdom, even Prism too! However, the morning didn't get off to the best start since we have some issues with the Magical Express "tickets" that they left out for us since we were not travelling back to Calgary together. This caused quite a lengthy delay since it was quite busy in the lobby when we went down to deal with this issue. But once it was all taken care of (and I was mentally preparing myself to wake up at 4am the next morning), we hopped on a bus to Magic Kingdom!


It was so nice seeing the Walt Disney World Railroad running in the Magic Kingdom since only a few months earlier in Disneyland the train was only operating our first day before being down for the (at the time) indefinite future.

Since we were held up with the issues with the Magical Express, we unfortunately did not make it in time for rope drop. However thanks to Fastpass+, we were still guaranteed to ride a few favourites (and new ones as well!)

Our first stop was Space Mountain since it had a relatively low wait time and it was one of Prism's few memories of the time she went to Magic Kingdom when she was much younger.



While the morning didn't go exactly as planned, Space Mountain can make anything better! I think I may like the Space Mountain in Disneyland slightly better since I find it easier to sit in their trains. The MK version definitely has the far superior queue that's for sure. Also, we got a fun surprise for our first ride of the day...


RED CARD, FIRST RIDE OF THE DAY!!!

I will be very sad if they end up getting rid of these cards and just use the magic bands to determine wait times. It's something so small but it's funny how much I like getting these little pieces of plastic!

After successfully returning from Space, we (for what reason present-Aaron has no idea about) walked all the way across the park to Frontierland to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.




Maybe the lines were really busy that day (I don't remember the lines being bad at all...) but we really wanted to ride BTMR I guess? And who could blame us, its an awesome attraction!


I see you hiding there Tony Baxter...


I think this is my favourite picture I took the whole trip. Somehow my dying Nexus 5 had one good photo left in it and it just so happened to be in the queue for BTMR! Like Space Mountain, I liked the queue much better here in Florida but with the recent updates in Disneyland and more recently the even more superior version in Disneyland Paris, WDW's wildest ride in the wilderness is still awesome!

We had a lunch reservation for around 11am I believe and with being delayed in the morning, we had only a little time to kill before it was lunch time (more on that soon...). It was also getting quite warm (at least for us Canadians) already so we decided to walk to Fantasyland at watch Disney's Philharmagic. I really, really like this 3D show (probably 2nd favourite behind Muppets) and it's always nice to experience it only in Florida.

After our adventures with Donald, it was finally time for our lunch reservation and one of the things I was looking forward to most all trip...



AWWW YEEESSSSS, BE OUR GUEST!!!

The one place I wanted to eat this whole trip was BoG since our last trip was when New Fantasyland was still under construction. As many of you will know, reservations as last minute as this trip was for BoG are nearly impossible. Luckily, I was unemployed at the time and just sat on my couch and re-freshed the reservation page ad nauseam until I finally got a lunch reservation. Since we were so limited on time, I thought lunch would be a good option to get a nice meal in at BoG but counter service so it didn't take up too much of our limited MK time.


For overall ambiance and theming, I don't think Be Our Guest can be beat anywhere in at least Magic Kingdom (maybe WDW???). I spent a lot of time just wandering around and looking into all the different rooms (#noshame). We ended up in the West Wing since it was counter service which was really cool but also very dark so none of my cell phone pictures showed up unfortunately.


I believe that I ordered the Carved Turkey Sandwich on the recommendation of some other trip reports that raved about it and it was really good! Especially for what's considered counter service (albeit expensive counter service), it was a lot of really quality food. Not 100% sure what Prism had but I think it was the Braised Pork, which looked really good.

As good as the food for our lunch at BoG was, it really doesn't hold a candle to how amazing the theming of the restaurant. I would absolutely go back every trip to WDW from now on and would love to try a dinner sometime too!

I think I'll end the report here and hopefully be much more regular in updating in (we will see haha....)

Next Update: Lots of Tomorrowland, a new (to me) parade and a FP+ afternoon!
​

 

[kickpuncher305]

Day 3: Magic Kingdom Part 2

When I last left off, we had just had an awesome lunch at BOG. After how filling that lunch was, we needed to relax and let our meals settle. So where else to go besides Tomorrowland!

First thing we rode was the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, which could be potentially my favourite attraction in all of Magic Kingdom. It is so relaxing, cooling on a hot day (like this day turned out to be) and rarely ever has a line! Of all attractions in Magic Kingdom, the TTA is by far the one I watch the most Youtube videos of when I've got the Disney-Blues.

I didn't get any picture of this trip on the TTA so after our trip around Tomorrowland, we headed to Monster Inc Laugh Floor.


We only saw the Laugh Floor once last trip so I made sure that Prism and I got to see it. We timed it perfectly so that we pretty much walked right in!

After our time with the monsters, it was finally time for our first FP+ of the day: Space Mountain Round 2!


This would definitely not be our last trip on Space Mountain for the day and it was fun as ever. After speeding through outer space, we needed to bring it back down again. Since it was already getting really warm (at least for us Canadians), we needed a nice air conditioned trip by in time...


Carousel of Progress! While it is showing its age (especially the "futuristic" scene), its another one of my favourite attractions in Magic Kingdom that I make sure to do every trip at least once.

Once we had successfully returned to 2016, it was time for our next FP+: Splash Mountain, which couldn't have come at a better time!


The picture really doesn't show how warm it really was at this point in the day. Usually I will bring a light rainproof jacket anytime I do a water ride, no matter the temperature but this time I just needed to cool down. It was also a good choice to get a fastpass for Splash since we probably walked by at least a one hour wait and pretty much right onto our log.

Once returning from our Laughing Place, we headed over to the Enchanted Tiki Room since I do really like it as another mid-day relaxing attraction, it was on the same side of the park and the lines were definitely starting to get longer. As the running theme for the day seemed to be going, we timed it perfectly and were able to get right into the show!


Holy Lens Flair Aaron. Maybe this picture will do more justice to just how warm it was in the Magic Kingdom. Once exiting the Tiki Room, it was supposed to be time for our last booked FP+ of the day. I supremely lucked out and got two FP reservations for Seven Dwarves Mine Train less than a week before the trip at about 3pm, which I was very surprised. However, our streak of good luck ran out as SDMT was down when our FP's were good for. We decided to wait it out and hope it opened back up soon while we watched the Festival of Fantasy Parade.

We only had to wait about twenty minutes and got a pretty prime spot around the hub on the Fantasyland-Tomorrowland side of the park. The parade was delayed an extra ten minutes which felt like an eternity since it had to have been close to 25 celsius (not 100% sure what that is in Fahrenheit but warm for middle of March) and we were standing directly on concrete. Finally the parade started and it was great! I have not always been a big parade person but I've been really impressed with the last number of parades that Disney have been creating (Festival of Fantasy, Soundsational in DL, Paint the Night in DL and the new parade we just saw in Paris whose name I can't remember). After seeing the parade in DLP, it was super similar to Festival of Fantasy including what I think is an identical Maleficent dragon float.


Not that I'm complaining too much since the Maleficent float is absolutely amazing especially when it is breathing fire so close to guests!

We watched the parade and checked back in with the Mine Train but it was still not running. Since we were in Fantasyland anyways, we decided to get out of the sun and enjoy a nice drink inside Gaston's Tavern


All of New Fantasyland is absolutely amazing. While I think that I like the quaintness and overall connective theming of Disneyland's Fantasyland, these new areas of Magic Kingdom are awesome. We grabbed a couple Lefou's brew (which I put right up there with butterbeer for deliciousness) and just relaxed inside the Tavern for a little while. After we had finished our drinks, the Disney Gods came through and the Mine Train was working again! Being so close, we hustled over and still got to use our FP+ reservations!




This was my first time with the Mine Train open so this was a brand new attraction to both of us! I'm kinda disappointed we were delayed in the morning because I really wanted to see the whole queue which sounds really cool but at least we still got to get on it once during our very short trip.

Overall, I really enjoyed the ride. Yes it is quite short (especially for how crazy long the lines are) and its not really a roller coasted nor is it dark ride but it still really cute and it was still lots of fun!

We then started to head further into Fantasyland since there was a FP+ kiosk where we could book our 4th FP+ of the day. We hadn't done Haunted Mansion yet this day and when we looked at the availability, we found FP's for 4:10pm at 4:08!!! We made this reservation and headed right over to Liberty Square!

I think I will stop here for this update and should have maybe only one more entry (maybe two...we will see how in detail I can remember things from over a year ago) for this final day in WDW.

Next Update: Booking more (and more and more...) FP+'s and fitting as much in as one could possible do at Magic Kingdom!​