Just a Couple of Childless (for the week) Millennials, Here to Ruin the Fun for Families *COMPLETED 1/5*

It's too bad it was so busy in MK! At least you got to meet Mickey and Minnie - that looks like it was a highlight.

Forty-five minutes for a quick service mobile order?! That's crazy! Your meal at the Contemporary looked very good, especially your desserts.

I think when the crowds are that bad, it's best to call it a day. A good night of rest will give you more patience for the craziness the next day!
 
Hi: I've just read all 9 pages and love your trip report. I know how you feel about people and crowds! At the beginning of our trip I always say,"What adorable children". At the end, I say, "I'm tired of spoiled kids and crowds, let's get out of here, LOL!
Anyway, loving your report.
 
Wow!! I can not believe how long that mobile order was going to take! What's the point of mobile ordering then- to sit around in a restaurant for an hour waiting for food?!
Imagine the poor people that waited 30 minutes just to order and then still had to wait 45 minutes after, yeesh it was a hot mess that night for sure.

Crazy about the lines and that mobile order time as well. Now I'm a little bit scared about our upcoming trip because I do expect MK will be busy in the evening...but I am hoping not that busy.
I hope for your sake it's not that busy, it just wasn't enjoyable to be there.

I really love that wide angle Magic Kingdom shot...think we may have to do that one just because.
It's definitely worth the stop, I think there is one in Galaxy's Edge now too. I guess I'll find out soon.

It's too bad it was so busy in MK! At least you got to meet Mickey and Minnie - that looks like it was a highlight.
Isn't it always? I love Mickey and Minnie.

Forty-five minutes for a quick service mobile order?! That's crazy! Your meal at the Contemporary looked very good, especially your desserts.
I know, it was worth it to leave and go over to CR.

I think when the crowds are that bad, it's best to call it a day. A good night of rest will give you more patience for the craziness the next day!
For sure, it's just hard for me to throw in the towel because in the end I want to be in the park. But you're right, sometimes it better to know your limits, and that what I did this night.

Hi: I've just read all 9 pages and love your trip report. I know how you feel about people and crowds! At the beginning of our trip I always say,"What adorable children". At the end, I say, "I'm tired of spoiled kids and crowds, let's get out of here, LOL!
Anyway, loving your report.
:rotfl2: I love that! It's very accurate though. Thanks for reading!
 
RL Update: I just wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Things are ramping up for our next trip, so I want to pump these updates out. We'll be enjoying our long weekend in a very Disney way. We're going to see Frozen 2 tonight, and spending the weekend curled up on the couch for a Star Wars marathon, to prep us for Galaxy's Edge. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!


Just Keep Swimming

This morning we were up super early again for Epcot EMH. We got to the bus stop right after 7, and I was feeling pretty confident in our ability to be at the front of the Epcot pack this morning. The Disney bus system had other plans for us. In thirty minutes we saw 3 DHS buses, 2 AK buses, and 1 MK bus. Why that many buses were needed for parks that didn’t open for 2 hours, is beyond me. Finally we were on the bus by 7:30 and thank goodness for being the first stop, after all that waiting, a lot of people were left behind. We got to Epcot 10 minutes before opening, which was not great considering how early we had gotten ready. Then were hit by the wall of people at bag check. We ended up waiting 30 minutes at bag check, which meant we missed rope drop. I was annoyed, but decided to just keep swimming, and not let it get me down.


We had missed our chance to ride the headliners with little wait, so we opted for Spaceship Earth first. I am determined to get as many rides in before they ruin it, sorry I meant "refurbish it".


This is were our journey stopped, for about 10 minutes. I had to laugh at our misfortune this morning. When the ride got moving again, we made it all the way to the Egypt scene and then the ride stopped again. This time they had to completely reboot everything, which resulted in this.


We eventually got moving again and we actually got to see our future. I was shocked by this considering how hit and miss this feature is and with the system rebooted I thought it would have been lost.


With all the delays, by the time we got off SE, EMH was over. I wanted to meet some characters before they went away, so we went there next.

We met Joy and Sadness.



We chatted about being sad our trip was ending and about Dory and Nemo. This was by far our best meet of the trip. They were so interactive and engaging, I never had time to feel awkward like I do with most meets.



Next up we had our FP for Mission Space. We chose the orange side again, and I made sure to have Joe take his Dramamine, so he didn’t get sick. We walked back across the park, but I had to stop and take a picture of this creepy mannequin with her eyelashes glued onto her face outside of Mouse Gear.


We walked over to The Seas next, having not been over there yet.


Nemo said it was 20 minutes, which I wasn’t thrilled about, but we decided to wait it out. Thank goodness we did because this “20 minute wait” was approximately 2, and that was just to walk through the queue.


There was a PP out near the Nemo figures, and I had my Nemo shirt on, so we stopped for a picture.


I needed more pictures, because so much of Future World will look different next time we’re there.




We then checked out the Disney and Pixar film festival, which I believe had changed since I last saw it. In the waiting area, there was a family that had taken their shoes off.


I get it, your feet are hot and sweaty and hurt, but please keep your shoes on.

The show was entertaining, they had added Feast and Piper since I was last there. Feast is one of my favorite shorts, so I was happy.





We had our next FP, so we headed into the Land.


I had never seen the Circle of Life movie, but I am happy they are replacing it and not just leaving it empty like some other Epcot areas have been in the past.


Our FP was for Soarin, and we once again benefited from being a party of two and got to skip a good portion of the line. The best part? We lucked into B1, without even asking!


It’s amazing how improved the view is in B1. We had our last FP for Livin with the Land, which ties in perfectly to my afternoon plans.


We got off the ride, and were able to check right into our Behind the Seeds Tour next door. This was Joe’s third and final surprise for the trip. Once you meet up with your tour guide, you are taken into a door in the exit of Soarin. Once you get your introductions, you are led to a room which is directly behind the final scene from LwtL. It was a little distracting because the music is pretty loud from the ride. But here we learned about using predators, like aphids, as a natural insect repellent to the plants.


After this we were given the headphone packs, because we had a large group and would heading into the ride next.






Our next stop was in the lab area, where they told us how they use plant tissue to grow new plants.


Then we had the vertical garden, which was our tour guide’s home greenhouse for her internship.


We also met Stanley, who is a sensitive plant. When you touch his leaves, that leaves close up.




We then moved over to the tasting portion of the tour and learned about hydroponics. We got to try some cucumbers that are grown here.


Next up we had the vine greenhouse, which was very cool.


Here I got to hold, a 13 pound winter melon, if I remember correctly.


Our next stop was in the fish farms. I was very excited to get to see this from a new perspective.






We even got a chance to feed the fish.


Our final stop was actually in the first greenhouse you enter on LtwL. We got to smell mystery spices and guess what they were.

I think this was a fluted pumpkin on the table.



The final thing we got to do was take a picture in front of the Mickey shaped pepper tree.


Overall, I really enjoyed this tour. LwtL, is one of my favorite Epcot rides, so just the chance to see things up close was awesome. I am not a gardener or anything, but I was still able to appreciate it. Also there was a girl about 10 on our tour and she also really enjoyed it, so good for kids too.

 
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This time they had to completely reboot everything, which resulted in this.


Wow! I'm sure that was annoying during EMH but kinda cool to see!

We then checked out the Disney and Pixar film festival, which I believe had changed since I last saw it. In the waiting area, there was a family that had taken their shoes off.

EW.

Our FP was for Soarin, and we once again benefited from being a party of two and got to skip a good portion of the line. The best part? We lucked into B1, without even asking!

That's awesome!

We got off the ride, and were able to check right into our Behind the Seeds Tour next door. This was Joe’s third and final surprise for the trip.

Awesome! Was he surprised? Excited?

Overall, I really enjoyed this tour. LwtL, is one of my favorite Epcot rides, so just the chance to see things up close was awesome. I am not a gardener or anything, but I was still able to appreciate it. Also there was a girl about 10 on our tour and she also really enjoyed it, so good for kids too.

Thanks for the review! I've been throwing around the idea of doing that tour for a while and now I really wanna try it!
 
What a frustrating experience that morning, between the absent busses and the crazy security lines. I'm glad you were willing to be flexible and had a fun day anyway.

I'm all for refreshing rides (the right way!), but I hope they don't mess too much with the awesomeness that is Spaceship Earth. Fewer technical issues would be great, though!

Joy and Sadness are quite a delight to meet!

I'd forgotten you did the Behind the Seeds Tour! I made a same-day decision to do this tour back in 2016 and thought it was great fun. I agree the best part was being able to walk around the attraction - I felt like such an insider! I'm so glad you enjoyed your tour!
 
The start of your MK night sounded fun but I'm sorry about the crowds and insane lines for food! Good idea heading out to have a more enjoyable meal!

Sounds like a great Epcot day! And a nice time doing the Behind the Seeds tour!
 


My mom started texting me on the way over. Apparently, Joe’s car was out of coolant and my mom was freaking out. I love my mom and I so appreciate her helping us out, but this afternoon was so stressful She kept hounding us, and there was literally nothing we could do seeing as we were 1100 miles away. We explained exactly what she needed to do, which was pour some coolant in the right tank, but she apparently couldn’t do it. By the time we got to the pool Joe had to call her. I got in the pool for about 2 minutes.
Yeah... hate having to try to deal with a problem like that when there's really not anything you can do. Just stressful.
So the bus kept getting pushed back and we were risking missing our fastpass. I really didn’t want to miss Slinky Dog, so we called another Lyft. The Lyft driver came in less than 2 minutes, and the bus was still predicted to be 10 minutes out, plus the time to stop at all the other bus stops, so I think we made the right call.
That's really frustrating, but it looks like you made the right call there.
It's the wildest ride in Andy’s backyard.
I like that!
We hung out near the mobile order area, and waited about 15 minutes. In all the times I had done mobile order, I had never waited that long. I hear a woman walk up and all I heard was 74, and our order number ended in 68. So I thought maybe we had gotten passed over somehow. So I ask the CM, and she looks at me and I can tell she is trying to hold back, but instead she says on that will be at least another 45 minutes:scared1:.
Holy crap. That's just ridiculous! I thought they turned mobile order off when the queue got too long so that this exact scenario wouldn't happen????
We decided to skip MK and just head back. I am sad how this evening ended, but I think I have been super spoiled by low crowds on my past trips. TP claims this was a crowd level 7, I can’t even imagine how miserable that park would have been with even more crowds. But I feel like if it’s an hour to eat burgers and fries, most rides had 45 minute waits or more, the walkways being wall to wall people, I’m not sure how many people would have fun in that.
Yeah, there's just no way you could have really enjoyed yourself in that crowd.
In thirty minutes we saw 3 DHS buses, 2 AK buses, and 1 MK bus. Why that many buses were needed for parks that didn’t open for 2 hours, is beyond me.
Really, this is insane! This always seems to be the same thing we run up against if we are trying to get to a park for RD or EMH... always every other bus but the one we want. Honestly, if you're at a bus stop an hour before RD and still can't make it there in time for RD, that tells you a lot about some of the shortfalls in Disney's logistics.
With all the delays, by the time we got off SE, EMH was over. I wanted to meet some characters before they went away, so we went there next.

We met Joy and Sadness.
Ironically, 2 appropriately named characters regarding the upcoming refurbs at EPCOT.
I needed more pictures, because so much of Future World will look different next time we’re there.
::yes::
Overall, I really enjoyed this tour. LwtL, is one of my favorite Epcot rides, so just the chance to see things up close was awesome. I am not a gardener or anything, but I was still able to appreciate it. Also there was a girl about 10 on our tour and she also really enjoyed it, so good for kids too.
I really think that would be a fun tour to do! Thanks for the review!
 
Wow! I'm sure that was annoying during EMH but kinda cool to see!
At that point, our EMH was shot, so I didn't let it bother me. We even got to the booting menu which was funny to see on a ride. \

Awesome! Was he surprised? Excited?
He was excited, he realyl enjoys going backstage.

Thanks for the review! I've been throwing around the idea of doing that tour for a while and now I really wanna try it!
Do it! It is worth it.

What a frustrating experience that morning, between the absent busses and the crazy security lines. I'm glad you were willing to be flexible and had a fun day anyway.
Flexibility is key, it's one of th eblessing of going as often as we do.

I'm all for refreshing rides (the right way!), but I hope they don't mess too much with the awesomeness that is Spaceship Earth. Fewer technical issues would be great, though!
I am nervous to see what they do with it.

Joy and Sadness are quite a delight to meet!
It was joyful to meet them, but sadness that the meet is now closed ;)

I'd forgotten you did the Behind the Seeds Tour! I made a same-day decision to do this tour back in 2016 and thought it was great fun. I agree the best part was being able to walk around the attraction - I felt like such an insider! I'm so glad you enjoyed your tour!
It was really cool, I am so glad we did it.

The start of your MK night sounded fun but I'm sorry about the crowds and insane lines for food! Good idea heading out to have a more enjoyable meal!
Sometimes you gotta know when to call it quits, and I am so glad we did.

Sounds like a great Epcot day! And a nice time doing the Behind the Seeds tour!
We loved the BtS, totally worth it.

Yeah... hate having to try to deal with a problem like that when there's really not anything you can do. Just stressful.
Exactly, definitely a downside to having my mom watch the kids, she can get helpless in these situations which isn't great for us when we're far away.

Holy crap. That's just ridiculous! I thought they turned mobile order off when the queue got too long so that this exact scenario wouldn't happen????
I guess they forgot :confused3

Yeah, there's just no way you could have really enjoyed yourself in that crowd.
Heck no! I don't know how people do it.

Really, this is insane! This always seems to be the same thing we run up against if we are trying to get to a park for RD or EMH... always every other bus but the one we want. Honestly, if you're at a bus stop an hour before RD and still can't make it there in time for RD, that tells you a lot about some of the shortfalls in Disney's logistics.
You're 100% right, it's kinda crazy when you put it that way.

Ironically, 2 appropriately named characters regarding the upcoming refurbs at EPCOT.
:rotfl2:Truth


I really think that would be a fun tour to do! Thanks for the review!
It was totally worth it, you should check it out next time, I think you'd enjoy it.
 
Another free ride, yes please

We stopped for some PP pics, since I we hadn’t gotten any in front of SE yet.




We were ready to head back to Coronado for some lunch, so we headed out. I stopped at the stand right after bag check to pick up a pair of the Illuminations Minnie ears first. As we were walking out, we saw two CMs kinda watching the crowd leaving and they called us over. I was thinking it was a survey thing, but they actually offered us a free Minnie van ride instead. One of the CMs was in training, and she needed to practice how to get everywhere on property without a GPS. We of course accepted.




They had Epcot music playing the whole ride which was nice.


We had a very nice conversation with them about SWGE. CM previews had started that week, and every CM we talked to which was a lot, wanted to talk about it. We are very excited about the land too, so we enjoyed it. (I can't believe I actually get to experience in a few days now :cool1:)

When we got back to CS, we noticed in the old lobby they had added couches and chairs to the room.





We were starving, so we went to El Mercado for lunch. I got the nachos which was HUGE.


Joe went with the burger, which took forever.


We spent the afternoon, swimming, doing laundry, and napping. It was a much needed rest.

We had gotten a TSMM FP for 5, so we headed back to the park around 5:30. Thankfully, we had no bus issues and made it in time.



We went over to Grand Avenue, Joe thought that he would be able to get some pixie dust and get into SWGE. I knew better, but joined him on his quest and laughed when he got turned down:rotfl2:. On the plus side, we had more pleasant conversations with the CMs about the land.

The wall was down, from the when we were there last.



Since we were over here, we opted for snack at Baseline.




Our favorite was the blood orange cider on the right, but they were all very good. I had never been over here really, and I loved this mural with ToT in the background.


The area was filled with CMs waiting for their turn in the land, it felt very energetic at the time, I never wanted to be a CM more than in that moment. Once we finished our snack, there wasn’t that much to do. As was the norm at this point every ride was over an hour wait, expect maybe ST, which we had ridden enough, and I couldn’t get a FP for pretty much anything else. We hadn’t been to Launch Bay yet, which Joe loves so we wandered over there.








How Joe feels about Star Wars, is how I feel about Disney, which is to say he is obsessed. So he really enjoys wandering around, and checking it all out. He had been such a good sport this trip, so as much as I wanted to move on, we checked out every inch of this place.


If we couldn’t enjoy the “real” thing over in SWGE, we would pretend to in the Launch Bay.






After thoroughly checking out every nook and cranny, we got in line to meet some characters next.

First we did Kylo Ren. He tried to recruit me to the dark side, Joe willing went over, I resisted.








Now excuse, my while I rant a minute. As you can imagine, I need to stay very up-to-date on changes in the Disney parks, so I read news sites and forums pretty much daily. I knew about the automated PP boxes being installed, but the last I had heard they were only sporadically being used at Tinker Bell. However, they were fully functional and being used at both Kylo Ren and Chewie M&G. Now if you scroll up and look at my pictures again, they actually aren’t bad, they captured some fun moments. But they are all wide angle, no close ups. Also, we’re adults and we knew about the cameras, but my kids for sure wouldn’t have been able to just stay in one spot. In fact, my youngest has been known to get very excited and move all over the room when meeting characters, which is fine when there is a person to follow them around. Needless to say, I like many others, are not happy with this change, and it was kind of deflating to be hit with this change for the first time right as we’re about to meet a character.

Next, we had Chewie.





I wish there was a actual person there to move to the side to capture these pictures, so my butt wasn’t so prominent in these pictures:mad:. I felt like I needed to be focused on where I was to get a good picture instead of being in the moment with Chewie.


Our last character to meet was BB8.


It was forecasted to rain, so we didn’t want to stick around for the nighttime shows in the rain. We bought some metal earth type thing for Joe and the Galaxy’s Edge comic books for the boys.

We said goodbye to Hollywood for this trip, and got a bus going to Disney Springs. We were super hungry, so we went in search of dinner first. We did mobile order with Earl of Sandwich on the way over. We had fallen in love this this place during our Disneyland trip, so I was excited to get back. We both ordered the chicken chipotle sandwich.



Dinner was delicious, but we saved room for dessert. We have never really taken the time to explore the stores in Disney Springs. We usually hit up World of Disney, Once Upon a Toy, and the pin traders and that’s it. Since we had no other plans, we decided to browse all the stores, at least on this end of Disney Springs.




Tomorrowland


How cute is this figurine, it was called self portrait.


We did very good, and just window shopped with the exception of picking up some tea and spices from the tea and spice company. Funnily enough, we were chatting with the CM while we were checking out, and found out this store is a chain and one of there locations is in the Stockyards in Fort Worth, which I have visited multiple times, but never bought anything there.

We finished off the night at Sprinkles. Joe got a malt and I went with the sundae.



So yummy. We went back to Coronado and started to clean up. We only had one more full day in Disney:sad:.

 
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How lucky to get a free Minnie Van ride!

I bet Joe is SUPER excited to see SWGE! I hope you all really enjoy it and have so much fun!

I'm quite sad about the photo boxes - the random (close-up!) pictures at the character meet and greets are often some of my favorites.

I love wandering around Disney Springs - it's a shame it's such a pain in the keister to get there. Your dinner and dessert sound quite delicious, as well.
 
Awesome getting a free Minnie van ride!

Sounds like a nice time for Joe getting to enjoy Launch Bay!

And a nice time at Disney Springs that night!
 
I'm so enjoying your report, without the kids, LOL.
Our trip isn't until next Feb/March, so it's fun to read about your fun at Disney.
Right now we have 8 more inches of fresh snow with below zero temps. Brrrrr, wish I was at WDW where it is now 85 degrees!
We love Earl of Sandwich and always eat there; good food for a reasonable price! We stay at POFQ, so it's a nice boat ride to DS>
 
I've enjoyed following along with your childless trip! Our kids are grown so I've done several trips with just the DH. It's a whole different ballgame. The plan is to take our grandkids to Disneyland in 3 years when they're a little older. I'll have to rearrange my expectations for that one. Love the pictures with the suitcases - so cute! Too bad the crowds were an issue at times. We're doing a short 4 night trip the end of March. Not sure what to expect crowd wise but hoping it won't be wall to wall people. Hope your last Disney day is a good one!
 
I was thinking it was a survey thing, but they actually offered us a free Minnie van ride instead. One of the CMs was in training, and she needed to practice how to get everywhere on property without a GPS. We of course accepted.

Awesome!

We went over to Grand Avenue, Joe thought that he would be able to get some pixie dust and get into SWGE. I knew better, but joined him on his quest and laughed when he got turned down:rotfl2:. On the plus side, we had more pleasant conversations with the CMs about the land.

:rotfl: :rotfl: Nice of you to support his quest and laugh at him lol

Now if you scroll up and look at my pictures again, they actually aren’t bad, they captured some fun moments. But they are all wide angle, no close ups. Also, we’re adults and we knew about the cameras, but my kids for sure wouldn’t have been able to just stay in one spot. In fact, my youngest has been known to get very excited and move all over the room when meeting characters, which is fine when there is a person to follow them around. Needless to say, I like many others, are not happy with this change, and it was kind of deflating to be hit with this change for the first time right as we’re about to meet a character.

Ugh. The worst. I just don't understand who thought this was a good idea.

48701757093_1a98189d12_z.jpg

Omg that's perfect!
 
How lucky to get a free Minnie Van ride!
I was so excited!

I bet Joe is SUPER excited to see SWGE! I hope you all really enjoy it and have so much fun!
It was AMAZING! We othed loved GE.

I'm quite sad about the photo boxes - the random (close-up!) pictures at the character meet and greets are often some of my favorites.
I hate them, we got one random close one this time, and it was just of the boys standing there staring :mad:

I love wandering around Disney Springs - it's a shame it's such a pain in the keister to get there. Your dinner and dessert sound quite delicious, as well.
Agreed, it's a pain. We never enjoy it with the boys, so it was nice to be leisurely.

Awesome getting a free Minnie van ride!
I was so happy considering this time around multiple times we tried and we couldn't even pay to get one.

Sounds like a nice time for Joe getting to enjoy Launch Bay!
It was...for him :rotfl2:

I'm so enjoying your report, without the kids, LOL.
Our trip isn't until next Feb/March, so it's fun to read about your fun at Disney.
Right now we have 8 more inches of fresh snow with below zero temps. Brrrrr, wish I was at WDW where it is now 85 degrees!
We love Earl of Sandwich and always eat there; good food for a reasonable price! We stay at POFQ, so it's a nice boat ride to DS>
Thanks! It was actually cold and raining last week while we were there, so a little disappointing, but still better than snow (I hate snow :cold:)

I've enjoyed following along with your childless trip! Our kids are grown so I've done several trips with just the DH. It's a whole different ballgame. The plan is to take our grandkids to Disneyland in 3 years when they're a little older. I'll have to rearrange my expectations for that one. Love the pictures with the suitcases - so cute! Too bad the crowds were an issue at times. We're doing a short 4 night trip the end of March. Not sure what to expect crowd wise but hoping it won't be wall to wall people. Hope your last Disney day is a good one!
Thanks! Kids will definitely make you slow down, although Disneyland will be nice since it's a slower pace there anyway. I hope you have a nice time in March, my cousins go every year during spring break and they love it.

:rotfl: :rotfl: Nice of you to support his quest and laugh at him lol
I mean it's in the vows right? :rotfl2:

Ugh. The worst. I just don't understand who thought this was a good idea.
An idiot who only cares about money and not guest experience.
 
I am back, and almost fully recovered from our 9 day/8 night Christmas extravaganza. It had some highs and lows, but overall it was a really good trip. We absolutely loved Galaxy's Edge and even braved the madness and got to ride Rise of the Resistance 2 and a half times. I will be starting a TR for it soon, so stay tuned. For now though, let's get on to our last full day.

Zen Like Rafiki

As per usual at the end of our trips, we were utterly exhausted. We accidentally slept in, and just missed rope drop at Animal Kingdom. We went straight to the safari, and thankfully the wait wasn’t too long yet.




The only elephant we could see was this lonely guy.


The rhino literally just walked right at our vehicle, it was so cool.




Lazy Lions


Overall the safari was okay. Our guide was fine, but nothing outstanding, and a lot of the animals were not out. I used to have amazing luck first thing in the morning, but the past two times this hasn't been the case. Maybe the animals are having to stay out later due to the evening safaris and therefore not going out as early?

It was my third time in AK, and I had yet to Festival of the Lion King and that is just unacceptable, and needed to be rectified.



After FotLK, we were feeling quite hungry, having to miss breakfast due to our sleeping in didn’t help. It was too early to eat, but we hung out in the general area of Harambe market, and checked out some of the shops over there. We spied a PP out near the Lion King doors, so we stopped for some of my favorite pictures of the trip.








This was all directed by the CM, and I just think they turned out so cute. We then went over to the marketplace to get lunch.


I went with the gyro, which I enjoyed, but I did miss the traditional tzatziki sauce. I think Joe went with the ribs, but I can’t really remember. We devoured our meals, hence the no pictures, so it’s safe to say we enjoyed them.


We decided to head back to the gorilla trail that we had missed the other day. There was a baby gorilla, I needed to see. First animal we stopped for was the zebra.


Here is the mama gorilla with the baby hanging off.


She was just hanging out, And there were three other gorillas near the glass, well mama decides she must run at other guys, which caused them to freak out and run away. It was very interesting to watch, the mama took her rightful place in the corner near the glass and started to breastfeed the baby.

Here they are slinking away.





I have to say watching that baby nurse brought horror flashbacks from my breastfeeding days, so we didn’t linger long, plus it was super crowded.

I had originally scheduled all our FPs later that normal in the day, because I had planned on being at the After Hours event the night before. But now, it was finally time for our first FP. We took a leisurely stroll over to Pandora.





We had another amazing flight on Pandora, but at the end when all the seats released mine did not. You may remember my almost panic attack from feeling trapped in the seat several days earlier and now something similar was happening. Thankfully, I knew a CM would be around shortly to release me, so there was no need to panic. I was happy to get out of that seat though.


We stopped at Pongu Pongu, for a Night Blossom.


They had just started up the ranger show, so we sipped our drinks and watched.


It was a cute show, I am glad we got to see it. We still had so much time until our next FP, so we decided to check out Nomad Lounge. I have heard such amazing things about this and Tiffins, so I wanted to at least try one. I love the ground outside the entrance.


I think the theme for this lounge is so interesting.


The décor in here is really cool as well. The wall is lined with travel questions and answers from imagineers. The ceiling was covered in paper with things people had written.






I honestly don’t remember what I drank but it was too strong for me.


We also got an order of the gravy truffle fries.


The truffle completely overpower everything else, and I did not like it. Overall, what we got was kind of a miss, but I would totally come back here. It is a nice break from the park, and I love the atmosphere.

We went to see Finding Nemo the Musical next. Joe hasn’t seen it since 2014.







When we got out of FNtM, it was pouring rain. We had our EE FP changed to an anytime. Since we didn’t see the rain clearing up, we chose to use it on Dinosaur.


After Dinosaur, we had a fastpass for Kali River Rapids. It was till raining, but the app showed a wait, and the FP was still there. Figuring maybe the lightening had cleared we walked over to KRR. Of course It was actually closed, but for whatever reason they didn’t update the app and we were never given an anytime fastpass. We decided to just leave for the day.

 
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Great trip report. Enjoyed reading! Might consider Coronado after seeing your pictures.
 
Two and a half rides on RotR? Oh dear, that sounds ominous! I'm thrilled you had an overall great trip, though!

A low-key time in AK sounds delightful! That's good to know about the safari in the early mornings - I always plan to ride the safari early in the day as I've usually had good luck seeing many animals. Perhaps I'll have to change my plan for my next trip!

FotLK and Finding Nemo in the same day? That sounds wonderful! I really enjoy both shows (but honestly, I think Finding Nemo might be my favorite of the two).

Yours is the first less-than-glowing review of Nomad Lounge that I've read, but I'm sure your drink and food choices are to blame. That's too bad about the overpowering truffle oil on the fries. Truffle is a pretty strong flavor so I could see how it would overtake the dish!
 
Sounds like a good time at AK! I love those PP pics, they came out so great and your dress is perfectly themed for the park!
 

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