Here I go again on my own...kind of. A June 2019 Solo-ish Trip Report *Updated 7/16/2020

[xlsm]

Every single Tuesday of summer has felt like Wednesday to me, and I cannot even express the sadness every time I realize the truth.

Have I done anything exciting in the last week?? No. No, I sure haven't. Last week was particularly boring. This week will be a little better, we have two birthdays - which means two desserts!! L, my youngest, will be turning 15 on Friday and DH's birthday is Sunday.

I feel like I've been throwing out recommendations for things a lot since resuming this TR, so to keep that going, and once again back on the true crime track (I can't help it, I'm obsessed), is to tell everyone with HBO to watch I'll Be Gone in the Dark. It follows the story of Michelle McNamara writing her book and her research on the Golden State Killer (formerly known as both the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker). It's one of the most beautifully done crime docu-series I've ever seen. You have to be prepared to hear some scary, sad things, but if you enjoy true crime it's worth it. It's only up to the third episode, so if you prefer to binge, it's worth noting to watch later!!

But let's keep going with a quick little update to the TR today - I'm actually planning to leave the house, so I'm making this one short and I'll do another big update tomorrow.

Chapter Seven Part Two

Raeven and I were reunited, yayyy!! I showed her where our room was, and she got settled in before we headed to Disney Springs for dinner.

(I really recommend reading Raeven's report from this night that I posted in the last chapter b/c I will be skimming pretty heavily I think)

One of the first things we saw upon entering Disney Springs was this lady playing her electric harp thing





You can tell by that leg kick that she was super into it. I'm pretty sure she was playing Despacito, so I guess the dancing was just unavoidable.

Raeven spends more time in Disney Springs on her trips than I do, so both of the food items we were having tonight were going to be firsts for me. Our first stop was The Daily Poutine. Fries with stuff on them is in my top ten of favorite foods, so I had zero complaints stopping here!!





We got the traditional ones with the brown gravy and cheese curds. They were pretty good. Like I said, I like fries with stuff on them! We have a local burger place with Debris Fries, which is their version of this, and I'm obsessed. We also have a Vietnamese restaurant here that serves duck fat fries, which are these over the top things with sauce and pork belly and why did I bring those up because now my mouth is watering and I can't get them at 8:52am Anyway, fries= good. (I do like the poutine in Epcot more, though)

As we were eating our poutine, we noticed the sunset was beyond spectacular, and embarked on an expedition to find the perfect spot to photograph it. I feel like this was very involved, and we kept stopping and moving down to try and line up better shots, lol.

But on the way, we discovered yet another electrical musician...this time, the lady on the rolling piano!

You want to travel, but you are also feeling the music and want to play? Get yourself a rolling piano!

Anyway, sunset! That's what we were looking for





The pictures don't do it justice, but trust me, it was a great sunset!!

Oh by the way, we aren't finished eating yet! It is time for D-Luxe Burger.

I know we picked the Southern Burger (Signature Blend Beef Patty topped with a Fried Green Tomato, Pimento, Lettuce, Grilled Onion and Bacon) and I *think* the Classic Cheeseburger (Signature Blend Beef Patty topped with Cheddar, Lettuce, Tomato, Grilled Onion and Pickle)



Haha, you can see us recording with Raeven's phone propped up on the Tabasco bottle, lol!!
I would eat here again. Maybe I need to go back and watch the vlog b/c I don't remember my feelings about this except I know I liked it

I think it was around this point we might have realized we weren't doing great on time...but we still popped into Amorette's for a second to look for the unicorn cake we'd seen on social media. It wasn't there, but I did become obsessed with how cute this Mickey bar cake was:



Now we were really running late so we went to the buses, took one to the Contemporary, and walked over to Magic Kingdom for Villains After Hours!!

Seeing the castle at the end of Main Street never, ever, ever gets old. Ever.



That's all for now! Villains After Hours experience coming up next time. Have a great Tuesday, Friends!

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a fun time at DS! Love the sunset pics- sooo pretty!

 

[PlutosRHM55]

I think that is the first time I've ever seen an electronic harp in Springs and I worked a whole evening there once lol The lady on the rolling piano is my favorite though and I rarely ever caught her.

I think a club for "People Who Like Fries With Stuff On Them" needs to be officially started and I propose that our mascot be Pizza Fries, the queen of Fries with Stuff On Them.

That sunset is STUNNING. It's like a painting WOW. Springs honestly is the best place to view sunsets.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Welcome back!

I think we all end up on a hiatus from the boards at some point and then find our way back lol.

 

[Raeven]

You can tell by that leg kick that she was super into it. I'm pretty sure she was playing Despacito, so I guess the dancing was just unavoidable.

Yes! She was really into Despacito.

As we were eating our poutine, we noticed the sunset was beyond spectacular, and embarked on an expedition to find the perfect spot to photograph it. I feel like this was very involved, and we kept stopping and moving down to try and line up better shots, lol.

I have 0 good pictures of the sunset still

I would eat here again. Maybe I need to go back and watch the vlog b/c I don't remember my feelings about this except I know I liked it

Yes we liked the Southern Burger a lot!

 

[Tracy161]

How have I missed this for a year?! Better late than never I suppose

 

[SimplyGoofy]

I'm a huge fan of the BSC, too - I still have well over 100 books! I found the 90's series on Prime and totally paid the $14.99 to buy the season - you have to find excitement where you can! I haven't had a chance to watch the Netlfix series yet, but I've heard nothing but good things.

Your character meets at AK look so fun! I love seeing that they had 90's throwback characters, plus Chip and Dale are the BEST!

How nice to be able to wander around HS! Some of my favorite times of the parks have been walking around and watching things (and people!), rather than rushing onto attractions.

I'm glad you were able to have a low-key day after all the night noise from the conventioners. It sounded very relaxing. Your time at DS sounded nice, too - and your sunset pictures are beautiful!

 

[xlsm]

Sounds like a fun time at DS! Love the sunset pics- sooo pretty!

I always forget how much I like Disney Springs when I go after being away for a long time. When it was Downtown Disney I feel like we always made a point to go, now I don't want to take park time away to go over. But I miss out on so much food, lol. We love Homecomin' so next June we'll be spending more time there.

I think that is the first time I've ever seen an electronic harp in Springs and I worked a whole evening there once lol The lady on the rolling piano is my favorite though and I rarely ever caught her.

I think a club for "People Who Like Fries With Stuff On Them" needs to be officially started and I propose that our mascot be Pizza Fries, the queen of Fries with Stuff On Them.

That sunset is STUNNING. It's like a painting WOW. Springs honestly is the best place to view sunsets.

the harp lady sighting was definitely a "where AM I ?" moment She was living her best life though!

Oh, I'm joining that club for sure!!

Welcome back!

I think we all end up on a hiatus from the boards at some point and then find our way back lol.

yeah, I just couldn't read anything Disney related, it was all too depressing when it closed

Yes! She was really into Despacito.



I have 0 good pictures of the sunset still



Yes we liked the Southern Burger a lot!

She really made the entire DS experience start off with a bang, LOL
We kept trying so hard to get those sunset pics!! Why wasn't it giving us what we wanted??

How have I missed this for a year?! Better late than never I suppose

yes, better late than never! That's what i'm telling myself as I slowly finish the darn thing, LOL!!!

I'm a huge fan of the BSC, too - I still have well over 100 books! I found the 90's series on Prime and totally paid the $14.99 to buy the season - you have to find excitement where you can! I haven't had a chance to watch the Netlfix series yet, but I've heard nothing but good things.

Your character meets at AK look so fun! I love seeing that they had 90's throwback characters, plus Chip and Dale are the BEST!

How nice to be able to wander around HS! Some of my favorite times of the parks have been walking around and watching things (and people!), rather than rushing onto attractions.

I'm glad you were able to have a low-key day after all the night noise from the conventioners. It sounded very relaxing. Your time at DS sounded nice, too - and your sunset pictures are beautiful!

Ooh, i'm jealous you still have your books!! I admit, I did buy Super Special #1 (where they go to Disney World - probably what started my wdw obsession) and #9 (with the Peter Pan "musical extravaganza") on my nook and read them. I"m old, but I say they still hold up, LOL!!
I had several of the old BSC VHS tapes!! I may have to go look for them on Amazon, lol "Say hello to your friends, Babysitters Club. say hello to the peeeeeople who ca-are. Nothin's better than friends..." The Netflix series is really, really good.

I love the DinoRama characters. I wish more than anything that they'd do a Rescue Rangers meet and greet.

My favorite part of being solo is slowing down. I have to remind myself to do it sometimes, I find myself still rushing every once in awhile, and I'm like, what do you think you're doing? You don't have to be anywhere, stop it!! I guess I just need a pep talk every now and then

 

[disneyAndi14]

will say right now that Prince Charming Dev is someone you should not be supporting. I'm not gonna go into too much detail on here, but he is notoriously rude to cast members (I can speak from firsthand witness experience) and abusive of guest services. Not a good guy at all.

Oh no. He portrays a really positive and kind personality in the videos!
Sorry to hear that. Wasn’t he a CM in the college program in the past?
I have always loved The Tim Tracker, he is still one of my favorites. He is a little different now with all the home vlogs.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Noisy convention goers boo.... I hate noisy guests at night, it really irritates me!! I always hope we will have quiet respectful neighbors, doesn’t always happen, ugh!
We have a local place that makes the best all from scratch poutine, love it!!
We saw an electric harp player at Festival of Arts at Epcot and he
was amazing! I loved it.

 

[xlsm]

Good morning DisFriends!
I hope everyone is staying cool - if you're experiencing the heat wave like we are, you know it's pretty intense out there!!

Let's keep moving...


Chapter Seven Part Three

When I left you, Raeven and I had just left Disney Springs and made it to Magic Kingdom for the Villains After Hours event.

This was one of the earlier Villains events, I think only one or two had happened by the time our event date rolled around. Maybe this is why our experience was the way it was.

Anyway, upon entry the castle show designed for the event was happening. We didn't stop to watch (we'd watch the whole thing at the end of the night), but we did stop to take a billion pictures of the castle lighting up with the different scenes.







Beautiful!!

Where do you go during After Hours themed toward Villains with a spooky kinda vibe all over the park??



Haunted Mansion of course!

According to my photos, our next stop was Tomorrowland (I do have to admit, my brain is mixing up this event with the MNSSHP Raeven and I did on our trip last September, so I am relying on my photos!!)

We braved the special edition of Space Mountain, which was the lights off version with a Villains soundtrack. Honestly, I don't think either one of us heard what we were supposed to hear? I know Ursula laughed at one point, but it was like they didn't have the music turned up enough to hear it properly.
Also, I think I can finally admit I'm getting too old for Space Mountain. If you're in training for a fight it might be good though. It beats you up!! Also, when I was exiting the ride, my magic band popped off. It's my It's A Small World one, so if I'd have lost that one I probably would have cried, lol.

One of the draws of the event was special snacks and drinks in different areas of the park. Not the free ones like at Halloween or Christmas parties, but the kind you pay for. The first one we tried was Yzma's Llama Potion, a fizzy strawberry drink with dry ice making it bubble!



Look at this fine photography, folks!

This thing should come with a warning I kept laughing while drinking it, the dry ice makes it bubble and "steam", and it kept going up my nose. It was hard to drink. Verdict on this?? It was literally strawberry Fanta with dry ice

Our next stop would be the party edition of Pirates of the Caribbean and more event themed treats. On the way I couldn't help myself. Another castle shot:



I can't help myself! How can you resist those reflection shots??

I did like the event signage around the park:



Before going to the ride, we stopped at Tortuga Tavern for Hades Nachos ( black bean nacho chips with “fiery” buffalo chicken and nacho cheese) a specialty drink called Hades' Temptation ( purple frozen mocktail Cosmo with lemonade, violet monin syrup, and a gummy worm) made for the party.



These were kind of terrible, to be honest. The chips were flimsy, the "buffalo" sauce was not very buffalo-y. The drink was super fake sweet...but I kept drinking it. Why?? So if you see these nachos recycled on other menus (I know they made an appearance at MNSSHP in 2019, in addition to being at this party), I say skip 'em. Much better treats to be found!!

Next up was pirates. I think it's pretty much guaranteed now that when Pirates of the Caribbean gets a glow up for an event, it just means live actors will be scattered throughout the queue and ride.



I think it's fun having the interaction in the lines as you're waiting to board your boat. In this version, Captain Barbossa appears on the bridge and talks to you as you pass below. We had people in our boat who were VERY excited to see him there I didn't realize there was a Captain Barbossa Fan Club! These people were surely the ones in charge of that club, lol.

One thing to note - the Maleficent dragon float was supposed to be making random appearances throughout the night, but we were all over that park and didn't see her a single time.

We were closing in on the end of the night, so it was time to stake out a spot in front of the castle for the stage show called Villains Unite the Night, and for the final Maleficent parade (we did know we were guaranteed to see her then!)



You can see the characters in this shot. The basic plot of the show was Hades trying to take over the world b/c the planets were aligning and igniting his powers. Unfortunately for him, the other villains start showing up wanting to do the same thing. The show itself is fine, not the best, but my favorite part was how the castle would light up according to whichever villain was giving his or her reason for being the one who was REALLY supposed to take over the world. Villains featured were Hades (obviously), Dr. Facilier, Jafar, the Evil Queen (from Snow White), and Maleficent. Meg is in there too, kind of helping to narrate. Also dancers. The dancers were channelling their 90s MTV days and living their best edgy lives.

I think I liked Dr. Facilier's version of the castle best. So colorful!

After the show ended, we moved closer to the edge of the sidewalk so we could be ready for Maleficent. I am not sure anything could have fully prepared for what we were going to experience. It was loud and kind of intense. I mean, for Disney, it was intense. The crows and vine walkers were getting all up in your face. I think they took some cues from Horror Nights for this!

I think we were almost too close to Maleficent to get good pictures of her great dragony majesty. As she rolled toward Main Street, we followed along, kind of chasing her down, lol.

It was a great ending to the night. And to top it off, the Villains were out saying good bye on top of the train station

Overall thoughts on this event...

Like I said in the beginning of this post, we were at one of the very first nights of this version of After Hours.

The good - the atmosphere was fun, with the spooky lights and stuff. I liked that they tried to spice things up with bringing out the villains. Villains should be featured more!! I often talk about my first trip in 2001 and the villains dinner they had at 1900 Park Faire, it was amazing, and I am pro-villain presence in the parks! Also, I feel like wait times for rides weren't bad, but we didn't end up riding many. And here's where the bad comes in...

The bad - we didn't really get to take advantage of the low ride wait time b/c we were trying to focus on the special events and party exclusive treats that they'd put in place for this particular event. They raised the price when they added the villains, and added in the specialty themed stuff, so we felt we should try to experience that. By doing that, I felt personally, that we lost the benefit of it being an after hours event at all. Mainly b/c the "special events" weren't all that special, and the treats weren't great.

Improvements that have been made - for this year's parties (the few they were able to have ), they did add in some more character cavalcades with villains driving by throughout the night.

I want to do a regular After Hours at Magic Kingdom. I feel like those are worth it. For the price increase to add the villains, I did not feel it was worth the extra cost.

Don't worry!! We get After Hours redemption soon!!
Next update will be Cape May breakfast, MK morning, followed by some night time Hollywood happenings...and an After Hours that is one million percent worth the price!

Have a happy Thursday...tomorrow is FRIDAYYYYY. The best day of the week.

See you real soon!

 

[missangelalexis]

I really liked the Villains after hours but agree it's hard to take advantage of the low wait times if you want to do the special stuff- not enough time for both!

 

[PlutosRHM55]

The castle projections for the show do look really cool, but I heard the same thing from most people. The show really wasn't worth it.

I'm sorry that you had sound troubles on Space Mountain. I've heard a lot of back and forth on which was better, the MNSSHP version or the Villains After Hours version since they were similar. Glad to hear you didn't lose your Magicband... I sure know what it feels like to lose a really special one (and still kicking myself to this day).

I had the Hades Nachos when I went to MNSSHP this past year and I actually enjoyed them. I didn't have any of the issues you seemed to have had so maybe they upped their game? They didn't knock my socks off (most MK food doesn't) but they hit the spot for me.

That's so cool that the stilt walkers in the Maleficent parade act like the stilt walkers from HHN. I would've loved to seen that.

Honestly, the Villains After Hours on paper seemed disappointing and not worth it to me. I get why they don't have M&Gs considering how popular the villains are (see: the absolute chaos that was the Unleash The Villains event a few years back). But it's a hard ticketed smaller event, wouldn't they then be able to avoid that? If I knew I could meet Frollo or Meg or someone really obscure, I'd be there in a heartbeat. Take my money. Otherwise, it just seems a useless event, at least for someone like me who has spent more than enough time in these parks lol

Excited to hear about your BETTER After Hours experience!

 

[xlsm]

I really liked the Villains after hours but agree it's hard to take advantage of the low wait times if you want to do the special stuff- not enough time for both!

Part of our problem was arriving later than we wanted...the bus situation at Disney Springs has never worked in my favor, LOL!! This time it was a pretty big fail.

The castle projections for the show do look really cool, but I heard the same thing from most people. The show really wasn't worth it.

I'm sorry that you had sound troubles on Space Mountain. I've heard a lot of back and forth on which was better, the MNSSHP version or the Villains After Hours version since they were similar. Glad to hear you didn't lose your Magicband... I sure know what it feels like to lose a really special one (and still kicking myself to this day).

I had the Hades Nachos when I went to MNSSHP this past year and I actually enjoyed them. I didn't have any of the issues you seemed to have had so maybe they upped their game? They didn't knock my socks off (most MK food doesn't) but they hit the spot for me.

That's so cool that the stilt walkers in the Maleficent parade act like the stilt walkers from HHN. I would've loved to seen that.

Honestly, the Villains After Hours on paper seemed disappointing and not worth it to me. I get why they don't have M&Gs considering how popular the villains are (see: the absolute chaos that was the Unleash The Villains event a few years back). But it's a hard ticketed smaller event, wouldn't they then be able to avoid that? If I knew I could meet Frollo or Meg or someone really obscure, I'd be there in a heartbeat. Take my money. Otherwise, it just seems a useless event, at least for someone like me who has spent more than enough time in these parks lol

Excited to hear about your BETTER After Hours experience!

i'm glad the nachos were improved for MNSSHP. We skipped them on our party night after this experience, lol.

the stilt performers and crows with the Maleficent float were the best part of the night I think.

Yeah, M&G's would have REALLY screwed up timelines if waits were anything like a Halloween or Christmas party night. But yeah, with a smaller crowd size, it could have been manageable. I do like that for the ones this year they did character cavalcades...that's definitely been one of my favorite things to see during the current park reopenings

oh the next one is much better! Hollywood Studios delivered!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Thank you for your review of Villlans After Hours! I was considering one for our May trip (which obviously didn't happen) and still may consider an AH once we're willing to travel again. Perhaps now that they'd have some time to work out the kinks it will be a better value that it was initially.

I look forward to hearing what you thought of the HS AH as well!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

I agree with you on the villains after hours. Trying to do all the "special" stuff takes the time away from the low crowds on the rides which is really what you're paying for. I'm glad we did it and we had fun but I'd rather a full fledged villain event!

 

[Raeven]

Also, I think I can finally admit I'm getting too old for Space Mountain. If you're in training for a fight it might be good though

Every so often I forget I don't like riding that and try it again, and then when I get off it I'm like why did I do that?

Look at this fine photography, folks!

Were we trying to take a picture of it in front of the bush? Why did we fail so badly? (My pictures are kind of blurry).

One thing to note - the Maleficent dragon float was supposed to be making random appearances throughout the night, but we were all over that park and didn't see her a single time.

I still don't believe she was going around the whole park and somehow we just missed a giant float every single time it came around