"Fight Me, CRY-lo Ren!" and Other Tales of Mayhem! May 2016/Grad Trip Report! **NEW 7/5!!!

[MarieLightning]

That's a lot of great Photopass pictures you got there! It's always so nice to get a Photopass photographer who takes his time with you and makes sure you get the best shots you possibly could get.

I feel your pain on the drenched Splash Mountain experience! We had the same thing in November. It was pretty warm out so the water level was much higher than it had been the last time we'd had a late fall trip. Every little drop, some water flopped over the sides of the log. But we used the same drying technique with BTM

Looks like you guys were having a great time in spite of the rain! Obviously it sucks to get wet that much, but you still got a lot of stuff done from what I can see! That's definitely the kind of itinerary I would have enjoyed as well

And great thinking jumping into the Peter Pan line with a 30 minutes wait. You don't see those a lot, so that's the perfect opportunity to take in the new queue. I hope I get to do that some time, it looks really cool!

 

[mindylee847]

Great update! I love your picture with Buzz. It really looks like you guys are having an amazing time with him.

I always love a little rain in Disney... a LITTLE... lol. Glad you were able to make the most of it!

I absolutely adore Peter Pan and love that queue. I really enjoyed seeing Tinkerbell fly around in the nursery and the shadow games they have! I just went to Disneyland in February/March and they don't even have an indoor queue. It's all outdoors. But the ride there is much better with the refurbishment. It's like you're literally flying through the stars! I wish they could take the WDW queue and the DLR ride and smoosh them together.

 

[nilla]

Cassie was blown away by the theming of Main Street and kept going “I didn’t know it was going to look like this!”

That was my initial take on WDW, too. I knew there would be detailed theming, but whoa. I never expected quite that much detailed theming!

This was where we started quoting a review of the video game Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, where someone rated it 7/10 because there was too much water (in terms of Pokemon and areas to travel). Hence the alternate title, 7/10 Too Much Water. We ended up quoting that a lot to say 7/10 Too Much ____. Including 7/10 Too Much Backwards on Everest.)

I'll have to tell my Pokemon-addicted son this one. I'm sure he's read those reviews

Don't you just love the May (lack of) crowds? Of course, the rain doesn't hurt that, either. Of course, there's the whole getting drenched thing, but that's just a minor inconvenience.

Great trip so far! Cassie seems really lucky to have a seasoned Disney vet guiding her. It looks like she got the most out of her first visit.

 

[c3h3a3r]

Enjoying your report so far

 

[princessesandpascal]

Great update!! Sorry about the rain! That's terrible... but Disney in the rain is better than being anywhere else in the rain (in my opinion anyway!). Love all your pictures!!

I always had dreaded being caught in the rain in Disney, but now that it's happened it really wasn't so bad! I just definitely would try to not be wearing denim shorts during it. Or anything that invited the worst thigh chafing of my life. (Luckily I had some stuff from Lush to soothe it for the rest of the week!)

Thank you!

That's a lot of great Photopass pictures you got there! It's always so nice to get a Photopass photographer who takes his time with you and makes sure you get the best shots you possibly could get.

I feel your pain on the drenched Splash Mountain experience! We had the same thing in November. It was pretty warm out so the water level was much higher than it had been the last time we'd had a late fall trip. Every little drop, some water flopped over the sides of the log. But we used the same drying technique with BTM

Looks like you guys were having a great time in spite of the rain! Obviously it sucks to get wet that much, but you still got a lot of stuff done from what I can see! That's definitely the kind of itinerary I would have enjoyed as well

And great thinking jumping into the Peter Pan line with a 30 minutes wait. You don't see those a lot, so that's the perfect opportunity to take in the new queue. I hope I get to do that some time, it looks really cool!

We got some really crappy ones last year, so to have so many great ones was such a nice surprise!

I've never gotten that soaked on Splash in five years of it being in my top three! And it was pretty fun being caught in the rain for the most part.

We missed the queue last year when Mom wanted to do Buzz at rope drop instead of Peter Pan, and the line was never short enough to justify it. Definitely so fun!

Great update! I love your picture with Buzz. It really looks like you guys are having an amazing time with him.

I always love a little rain in Disney... a LITTLE... lol. Glad you were able to make the most of it!

I absolutely adore Peter Pan and love that queue. I really enjoyed seeing Tinkerbell fly around in the nursery and the shadow games they have! I just went to Disneyland in February/March and they don't even have an indoor queue. It's all outdoors. But the ride there is much better with the refurbishment. It's like you're literally flying through the stars! I wish they could take the WDW queue and the DLR ride and smoosh them together.

It was our only day with rain so it wasn't too bad!

That sounds incredible! I did still notice that you can see a lot of the behind the scenes of Peter Pan. Probably the most obvious one that you can really see the walls and ceiling and the boxes things are elevated on. Still a cute concept!

That was my initial take on WDW, too. I knew there would be detailed theming, but whoa. I never expected quite that much detailed theming!



I'll have to tell my Pokemon-addicted son this one. I'm sure he's read those reviews

Don't you just love the May (lack of) crowds? Of course, the rain doesn't hurt that, either. Of course, there's the whole getting drenched thing, but that's just a minor inconvenience.

Great trip so far! Cassie seems really lucky to have a seasoned Disney vet guiding her. It looks like she got the most out of her first visit.

I thought of you and Dylan when I was dramatically re-enacting the topiary of Rafiki holding up Simba after I'd picked out my Pokemon from Japan later in the trip! Somehow it brought to mind a picture from one of your reports where you posed his Pokemon on a rock or something.

The theming is hands down my favourite part of a WDW trip. And after seven times, it's more of a comfort to me than a shock and newfound experience so it was cool to see Cassie's reaction to it as well!

May is the BEST time to go IMHO. Mom and I are throwing around a possible early December trip sometime in the next three or four years (her birthday is December 14th) and I feel like I'd love the cooler weather but I'd miss the incredible May crowds!

I think she did! I did let her set the pace and she kind of ran the schedule for the remaining days (unless I used my veto power), and she wanted to go dawn to dusk every day, so that's what we did. We were exhausted when we got home, but we had so much fun that we found it to be worth it. We had five and a half days, so it was definitely a manageable time-frame to go really insane on touring. (Plus, I don't get to crazy-tour like that with Mom who is a firm believer in breaks, so it was fun to have a trip where we just went nuts!)

Enjoying your report so far

Thank you!

 

[nilla]

I thought of you and Dylan when I was dramatically re-enacting the topiary of Rafiki holding up Simba after I'd picked out my Pokemon from Japan later in the trip! Somehow it brought to mind a picture from one of your reports where you posed his Pokemon on a rock or something.

 

[Someluck]

Thanks for starting your newest TR; I am really enjoying it. Congratulations on your graduation...big accomplishment.

 

[DLHNYC]

Yay, a new TR! Loved your last one, excited to hear about your new trip. You and Cassie look like you have a lot of fun together, great smiles! (and congrats on your graduation!)

 

[Terra Nova guy]

Hello there! I just found your TR. It's always great to read from a fellow Canadian! And I like the title Looking forward to the rest.

We flew Air Canada Rouge (which all Canadians know is the cheap version of Air Canada), and found the plane to be pretty aesthetically pleasing.

A lot of people don't say much nice about Rouge, but I thought it was fine. At least it's only on fairly short flights.

We ended up sharing our flight with a bunch of members of Team Canada for the Invictus Games, which was really a cool experience!

Awesome! I was reading a little about the games as they were going on.

Or, the Fauxnorail, if you watch as much See Ya Reel Soon as I do. Which is a lot.)

I watch Joe & Ashley too! It's keeps me entertained while waiting for my next trip to Disney...

The hitchhiking ghost had Canada on the tombstone he held with our photos on it at the end, which was really cool!

Cool! I heard they were adding some personalized touches to HM. I hope to experience that myself someday, hopefully sooner rather than later.

I was surprised Mickey didn’t mention anything about our graduation buttons, but didn’t think too much of it.

Interesting. I thought a graduation conversation would be "on the list" for Mickey. I guess he runs out of things to say...

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

My DH and DS3 got drenched on Mine Train on May 4th too! Only they got it during the 11 am downpour.

Following along.

 

[GaRain]

Joining in - nothing like a trip to Disney with your best friend!

 

[princessesandpascal]

Thanks for starting your newest TR; I am really enjoying it. Congratulations on your graduation...big accomplishment.

Thanks for following along! And thank you!

Yay, a new TR! Loved your last one, excited to hear about your new trip. You and Cassie look like you have a lot of fun together, great smiles! (and congrats on your graduation!)

Glad to have you along again! We had an amazing week! (Thank you!)

Hello there! I just found your TR. It's always great to read from a fellow Canadian! And I like the title Looking forward to the rest.

A lot of people don't say much nice about Rouge, but I thought it was fine. At least it's only on fairly short flights.

Awesome! I was reading a little about the games as they were going on.

I watch Joe & Ashley too! It's keeps me entertained while waiting for my next trip to Disney...

Cool! I heard they were adding some personalized touches to HM. I hope to experience that myself someday, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Interesting. I thought a graduation conversation would be "on the list" for Mickey. I guess he runs out of things to say...

Thanks for following along!

I found that Rouge had better legroom than Westjet, oddly enough. I'm 5'8" with long legs, so legroom has always been a priority for me!

The personalized touches at HM were A+. I really thought the same about Mickey, though, maybe it was an off day for him.

My DH and DS3 got drenched on Mine Train on May 4th too! Only they got it during the 11 am downpour.

Following along.

There aren't many people that can say they got drenched on SDMT! We were in the air during that storm, luckily it blew through before we landed. Thanks for following!

Joining in - nothing like a trip to Disney with your best friend!

Thanks for joining in! It was a really fun experience!

 

[Fantasia79]

Nice job! Congrats on graduation.

 

[princessesandpascal]

Chapter 3: The One Where a Donkey Thinks It’s My Birthday
May 4, 2016

Where we last left off, we had just gotten off of Peter Pan's Flight and it was still down pouring! We decided to spend the next little while in the gift shops in Fantasyland wandering around and shopping. While we were in Castle Couture, a CM named Josh (he may not have been named Josh but we called him Josh for the entire rest of the week so he’s Josh forever now) struck up a conversation about our grad buttons and then offered us some pixie dust. And we accepted.

And now, instead of just being soaking wet, we were soaking wet and covered in glitter. (That pixie dust is NO JOKE. I feel for all the parents whose kids did the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. We are still finding glitter in our things after being home for almost a month. There is glitter embedded in my rain jacket. That stuff is HARDCORE.)

After a bit more browsing, the rain let up a bit, so we hurried over to Ariel’s ride while the rain was finally going away. I liked it a lot better this year: not sure if there was a refurb or if I've just become less cynical. After Ariel’s, we noticed a 30 minute standby line for the Mine Train, so we got in line. We got to play with the little activities in line, which were cute, and then were on the ride in about the half hour they said it’d take.

I can’t even remember if we had Fastpasses at this point, but we hustled ourselves to the other side of the park to catch the Electrical Parade on our way to Big Thunder Mountain. We found a perfect spot right on the rope about five minutes before the parade was going to start, so in terms of perfect timing, we were doing GREAT.

The lights all shut down soon after and we could see the beginning of the parade!

MSEP makes no sense to me. I don’t get why Tinkerbell comes out before the float that actually announces the parade. I don’t get what the giant face from Pinocchio (?) is doing as a float. I love Pete’s Dragon from my childhood, but I don’t get what they’re doing there either. I’d much rather they bring Paint the Night to WDW, since I saw videos of it on YouTube and fell in love a la Festival of Fantasy. But I did have a lot of fun watching the parade, and I seem to always watch it on the rope every trip.

When the boys from Pinocchio (You know, the knock-off Lost Boys) came skipping around, one of the donkey boys ran directly up to me, saw my pin and shouted “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” And then he paused, looked at my button, and said “Oh, wait…. Not a birthday. I still don’t really know how to read” perfectly in character. And when I said “That’s okay, it’s the thought that counts!”, he shouted “YAY” in a really high-pitched voice and skipped away.

In case anyone was wondering what the funniest moment of the day was.

After the parade ended, we headed over to Adventureland and walked onto Pirates. And by walked on, we seriously did not see another human being until we were walking into our boat. They sat us in the front, but luckily Disney fixed up the boats so we didn’t get wet. Not like it would’ve mattered at that point, really.

We walked back toward Frontierland next, and walked onto Big Thunder twice in a row. Both times we got the very back row, and Big Thunder in the dark in the very back row might be one of the most fun experiences you can have in Disney. On our way up toward Fantasyland, we stopped in for one more ride on Haunted Mansion, and then we decided to call it a night. We’d been up since 4:00, and even though the MK was open until 1 AM for EMH that night, we could barely keep our eyes open.

We headed out of the park at exactly 10:50 PM according to my notes, and were back at Movies not too long after that. We headed back to our room to find our bags waiting for us (yay!), so we unpacked while watching the Stacey channel. Instead of making EMH the next morning, we were taking a well-deserved sleep-in, so we settled into bed with a 9:30 AM alarm, and drifted off!

(I thought this chapter was a lot longer with more pictures. Another one is coming right up next!)

Up Next: The One Where I Use My Veto Power​

 

[princessesandpascal]

Chapter Four: The One Where I Use My Veto Power
Epcot -> Beach Club | May 5, 2016 | Day 2

We woke up not long before our alarm went off that we had set, bright and early at 9:00 AM! We were so thankful for the sleep-in, and it didn’t take too long to get our lazy selves out of bed to start getting ready. We got dressed and grabbed a couple granola bars out of our room stash for breakfast. (This was something new that we did that WORKED. Not stopping for breakfast gave us more time to sleep and get ready in the morning.) We were at the Epcot bus stop at 10:36, which again, I know only from my notes. If only they stayed that specific.

I didn’t know this from the amount of times that I looked at my Magicband, thinking it was a watch. It got to the point where we were walking into Epcot, and I checked the band for the time again before going “What time is it? Mickey Mouse time, apparently!”

Also, this was our first Disneybound of the trip: I was bounding as Flynn Rider and Cassie was bounding as Rapunzel. (If you don’t know what Disneybounding is, it’s basically when you wear regular clothes to represent a Disney character. Like this:


We stopped so I could get my Instagram picture, and then moved on to Mousegear. In the rain yesterday, Cassie’s button had gotten a bit weathered, so we were in search for a Sharpie to touch it up. After the confused CM tried to use a dry erase marker, she pulled out a Sharpie pen which fixed it enough to move on with our day.

We had a reservation for Beaches and Cream at 12:10, so our Epcot trip that day was more of a lovely stroll through the park so we could arrive at the Beach Club on time for our ADR. So, we set off for the International Gateway!

We took some time to explore up in the Canada pavilion, since I’d never done so before, and stopped for a few photos:

(I got that hat for my dad later on in the trip!)

As we passed through the exit of Canada into the UK, we noticed there were a set of gates wide open. And I know that weird gates opening = CHARACTERS. So we walked in, and there were about a dozen characters lining the path.

I need to note quickly that we had essentially come to an agreement that Cassie had the majority of free reign as to stopping for characters, waiting in lines for rides, etc, etc. The one exception was that if I saw an opportunity, I was allowed to exercise veto power to take advantage of it. Things that a newbie to WDW wouldn’t realize were one-in-a-million opportunities.

So, Cassie wanted to get in line for Pluto, who was one of the first ones we saw. But, the shining beacon of hope a.k.a Rabbit was up at the top of the path. And I all but dragged her up to Rabbit. (We knew we’d see Pluto at the Garden Grill later in the trip, don’t worry, I’m not that mean.) I’d never seen him out in the wild before, so we opted to go see him.

The couple in front of us left one of their drinks up on a ledge that was next to where Rabbit was meeting, and as the girl reached up to get it after they finished taking their picture, the slanted ledge tipped their drink over the side and into the bushes, never to be seen again. Poor Rabbit was very concerned and kept trying to see over the edge, which was adorable.

The very nice girls in line behind us offered to take our picture for us, since there were no handlers around:


We, of course, took their picture too.

After meeting Rabbit, the characters were called into the back, so we headed back out the gates. Off the top of my head, we also saw Mickey, Pluto, Goofy, Geppetto, Pinnocchio, and Pooh out there, among others.

We made our way all the way back to the International Gateway, and the boat was waiting at the dock, so we decided to take that instead of the walking trail. There was only us and one other family on the boat, since it was about 11:30 or so at the time. Beaches and Cream was a new place for me to eat, and the Beach Club is my dream resort, so I was excited to see it in person!

As we approached the Beach Club, I was so excited. It’s my dream resort and it was my first time ever setting foot in the hotel. I wanted to stay there FOREVER.

Cassie saw her palm tree when we arrived, and I took her picture with it:

Then, came the fun part of finding Beaches and Cream, where we went the wrong way and ended up walking in a huge circle around where Martha's Vineyard was before arriving at the restaurant a little early. The reservation they had said for three, which made no sense, but then they found the correct reservation and we were seated immediately!

We took a look at the menus while I was in awe over how small it was!

We ended up ordering the EXACT same thing, right down to the drinks, so it was an easy choice for the both of us. We both ordered pink lemonade:

And the grilled cheese sandwich with tomato bisque.

THIS WAS AMAZING. One of my favourite meals of the trip. The sandwich was perfectly crisp and cheesy, and the soup was creamy and so flavourful. I’m not even a huge soup fan and I loved it!

We were paying out of pocket for this one (since we had a CRT meal coming up that used two DDP credits), so we split dessert, and chose the strawberry shortcake.

The food was incredible, and we left very happy. Such a great TS meal to start the trip, and we raved about it for days!

RESTAURANT SCORE:
Food: 10/10!! SO good. That sandwich was out of this world.
Service: 8/10! Our server was really sweet, if not a bit absent. We liked her a lot.
Atmosphere: 9/10. It was really cute, intimate, and themed perfectly!

Overall: 9/10!

Will I Be Back?: ABSOLUTELY. It’s #1 on my list to take Mom to next time we go. It was absolutely delicious!

We made our way back to the boat dock to go back to Epcot (a stupid move, since we should have just taken a bus from the Beach Club to the Magic Kingdom, since that was our final destination), and stood there, waiting for a boat to continue our day!

Up Next: The One Where Rapunzel Loses Her Mind!​

 

[BaileyinWonderland]

You must tell us your buzz lightyear secrets! I've never been a galactic hero

 

[HomeSweetDisney]

Ah, I am LOVING your TR so far! First off, congrats on graduation! Second, you and your friend are so cute! I love when people get REALLY into Disney, it makes me feel like not such a weirdo for being REALLY into Disney. Gotta love the DIS

That stinks about all the rain your first night but you guys really made the best of it! And I always say, a rainy day in Disney is better than a rainy day at home!

I'll be there in Dec staying at Beach Club Villas & we are definitely going to eat at Beaches & Cream (just made ADR's this morning actually!)
That grilled cheese w/ tomato bisque looks RIGHT up my alley...so yummy!

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[AllysonL]

MSEP makes no sense to me. I don’t get why Tinkerbell comes out before the float that actually announces the parade. I don’t get what the giant face from Pinocchio (?) is doing as a float. I love Pete’s Dragon from my childhood, but I don’t get what they’re doing there either. I’d much rather they bring Paint the Night to WDW, since I saw videos of it on YouTube and fell in love a la Festival of Fantasy. But I did have a lot of fun watching the parade, and I seem to always watch it on the rope every trip.

Yes!! I said this as well! Right down to them bringing Paint the Night to WDW. That parade is amazing. I really hope they're working on that.

 

[Raeven]

Just caught up!

When I graduated college people kept asking me if it was my high school graduation too. I guess I must just look young, I actually changed majors and ended up doing an extra year so I was even older than a college grad.

My first time seeing a palm tree in person was also an amazing experience, I kept taking pictures of them and my boyfriend thought it was hilarious that I was so in awe of the trees, haha.

Ah, I can't believe you met Rabbit, good call with your veto power.

 

[MarieLightning]

That pixie dust is NO JOKE. I feel for all the parents whose kids did the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. We are still finding glitter in our things after being home for almost a month. There is glitter embedded in my rain jacket. That stuff is HARDCORE.

100% accurate. Glitter gets everywhere and it STAYS. Those kids probably sparkle for months after returning home.

After Ariel’s, we noticed a 30 minute standby line for the Mine Train, so we got in line. We got to play with the little activities in line, which were cute

That's a great wait for 7DMT! I hope I see something like that. I'm not that big on the ride itself, the seats are too uncomfortable for my liking, so I've given up trying to make a FP for it. But I'd also obviously never wait an hour in a standby line XD I really want to see the queue though. So here's to hoping for a shorter wait at some point during our upcoming trip!

MSEP makes no sense to me. I don’t get why Tinkerbell comes out before the float that actually announces the parade. I don’t get what the giant face from Pinocchio (?) is doing as a float. I love Pete’s Dragon from my childhood, but I don’t get what they’re doing there either. I’d much rather they bring Paint the Night to WDW

That is weird to me, too. Feels like the parade should be announced first, really. And the Pinocchio float always creeps me out. Also, they are remaking Pete's Dragon so I guess it will become relevant again - but then, they completely changed Elliot's design, so maybe not so much. I'd love for them to bring Paint the Night too, it looks gorgeous. But with how much that parade must cost to produce, and how they've been cutting corners in the US parks (#ThanksShanghai) I don't foresee that happening any time soon.

one of the donkey boys ran directly up to me, saw my pin and shouted “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” And then he paused, looked at my button, and said “Oh, wait…. Not a birthday. I still don’t really know how to read”

They sat us in the front, but luckily Disney fixed up the boats so we didn’t get wet.

Yaaay! I'm glad to hear that. I like Pirates, but with the reports of the standing water filling up the bottom and the waves sloshing over the sides, we decided to skip it last November. Glad to hear we'll be good to ride it again now

We walked back toward Frontierland next, and walked onto Big Thunder twice in a row.

I am so jealous of you right now.

This was something new that we did that WORKED. Not stopping for breakfast gave us more time to sleep and get ready in the morning.

My wife doesn't like breakfast food, so that's typically our tactic too. Get up, get dressed, get out Sometimes I'll treat myself though if I get up earlier than when we're planning on heading out, cause breakfast food is my favorite food.

I loooove this Disneybound! I want that skirt!

As we passed through the exit of Canada into the UK, we noticed there were a set of gates wide open. And I know that weird gates opening = CHARACTERS. So we walked in, and there were about a dozen characters lining the path

(We've yet to have that happen to us, throughout five trips in four years )

The one exception was that if I saw an opportunity, I was allowed to exercise veto power to take advantage of it. Things that a newbie to WDW wouldn’t realize were one-in-a-million opportunities.

That's a great policy. Let the newbie lead so you don't overwhelm her/overwork her, but put your foot down when she's making stupid choices (Of course, I'm kidding, it's not stupid choices if it's made from lack of knowledge we veterans have And even we veterans sometimes make stupid choices )

But, the shining beacon of hope a.k.a Rabbit was up at the top of the path. And I all but dragged her up to Rabbit.

Sheesh, you can meet Pluto out and about in like, half the parks. Obviously, Rabbit is a bigger deal! We actually got to meet him once in Christopher Robin's bedroom with Pooh. Our friend was disappointed cause we'd told her Tigger usually meets there, and he's her favorite, but we were bouncing up and down with excitement. She probably thought us a bit insensitive But we had a special Crystal Palace breakfast booked for the next morning, so we weren't really

THIS WAS AMAZING. One of my favourite meals of the trip. The sandwich was perfectly crisp and cheesy, and the soup was creamy and so flavourful. I’m not even a huge soup fan and I loved it!

I want to try Beaches and Cream, and get that grilled cheese sandwich. I was thinking that, when that's to happen, I'd ask it without the soup or ask if I could replace it with fries or a salad, because I don't usually like tomato soup. When you're say you're not a huge soup fan, do you typically still like tomato soup, just not an overabundance of it, or not even really?