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Oh My Gosh, Can You Believe?! A Pandemic Extravaganza Updated 3/9 Trip Video
- Thread starter xoSamma
- Start date
xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
Welcome along!
xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
A Sanaa Reunion
After our safari we decided to head over to Everest, with it still be somewhat early the crowds were still over in Pandora which was great for us because we were able to walk right on.
On our way over to Dinosaur we saw Chip, Dale and Goofy riding on the boat coming our way
The new way to see characters is more of what I prefer. I’m not the meeting characters type but seeing the from afar in their cute costumes was a great little touch in these social distancing times.
when we got to Dinosaur is was the time to figure out if Gma wanted to try to get on this one. My worry wasn't about getting her into the car this time, it was how much this one tosses you around like a tossed salad. But she decided to give it a go.
Like every other attraction with a pre-show…this was didn’t exist at this point of time. The room had green dots on the carpet so I would assume that they do or at some point show the pre-show. However today we just breezed by.
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As we were being tossed around Alish and I were certain that Gma would not be in our time rover when we got back safely. Surprising to us she was still sitting in the front and was being held by Kiss. And I’m pretty sure its safe to say she will never go on a trip to get a dinosaur ever again.
The birthday girl after being traumatized for life.
It officially hit 10 and we were done with the park. Brittany and Joe just got to the park and met us in Dinoland. Since everything was done…Ma Pa and Gma decided to find something to do while we all decided to get back in line for Dinosaur. The line was still a walk on but this time we went to the other viewing room and this had a whole pac-man layout taped to the floor.
After dinosaur we headed over to Everest where the wait was now 15 minutes but moved fairly quickly. After we got a glimpse of the yeti we headed back to pandora to meet back up with our parents at the canteen.
It was a sad deserted area over in Harambe village… its weird not going to watch my favorite tumble monkeys.
When we got to satuli it all went down hill fast. Kiss and alish decided they wanted the food here, Danielle wanted to get the pods and I just was waiting until we headed to Sanaa to eat.
Everywhere on property you have to mobile order, so everyone did that when we got there and waited. Alish and Kiss decided to take their food to go while Danielle ate her meal quick here. My mother was confused why I wasn't eating and because of this canceled their order.
At this point I don’t really know what happened. But what I found out was that my mother thought we were all eating here together as a family, while she knew all I talked about before coming on this trip was eating at Sanaa and getting butter chicken. So this led everyone to be crabby, because they were hungry but didn’t really want to eat here so they decided to eat at flame tree instead.
We ended up following behind and meeting at the tree of life to get a family photo.
Since Ma wanted everyone to eat together we decided to head to Flame tree with them and basically watch them while they ate. We grabbed a table by the water and waited for Poca to make her rounds on her boat.
Our safari driver recommended the mac and cheese here during our ride so that was the meal that they ordered
They all seemed to enjoy it until Alish asked Gma if she liked her mac and cheese and thats when she stopped eating. Gma is not the biggest fan of mac and cheese and she's a kid when she finds out she is enjoying something that she tells herself she doesn’t like.
It was a little after noon and by this point I was ready to eat my arm off. So while they were finishing up their meals we decided to head off to AKL.
The idea to have lunch at Sanaa became super easy once they announced that they were one of the first restaurants to order to go. So because of this we decided to go for bread service and then I realized I could order a kids butter chicken meal and I was sold.
When we got to kidani our food wasn’t ready so we decided to head on outside to see some animals.
The CM working outside was full of so many facts and you could just tell how much he loved his job. One of the giraffes was 18 and gave birth, the fun fact about that is 18 years in human years is about 95.
Then Brittany found the wildebeest out and about and said “oh there are the ones who killed mufasa. I will never forgive for that”
it was finally close to 1 and we got the text saying that our food was ready!
The problem with take out is that Kidani is super small and doesn’t have a good seating area outside. So we headed back to the bus stop and took it took Jambo house where we sat pool side.
The $10 kids meal came with butter chicken, rice, a drink and dessert. That in my book is a steal and it was everything I wanted.
Our lunch talk was how Joe was still super bummed that our cruise over the summer got canceled. It took us years for us to all find time to plan and book a cruise and when we finally did it gets canceled. Right then and there we made a pack that when cruises open back up we will be getting on the first ship.
With all the covid talk we got on the topic of me basically going back to a closed state. NY was on the brink of closing yet again and every part of me just wanted to stay in florida if that was the case.
Overall take out lunch at Sanaa was a 10 out of 10 and I would highly recommend!
continue to next post
After our safari we decided to head over to Everest, with it still be somewhat early the crowds were still over in Pandora which was great for us because we were able to walk right on.
On our way over to Dinosaur we saw Chip, Dale and Goofy riding on the boat coming our way
The new way to see characters is more of what I prefer. I’m not the meeting characters type but seeing the from afar in their cute costumes was a great little touch in these social distancing times.
when we got to Dinosaur is was the time to figure out if Gma wanted to try to get on this one. My worry wasn't about getting her into the car this time, it was how much this one tosses you around like a tossed salad. But she decided to give it a go.
Like every other attraction with a pre-show…this was didn’t exist at this point of time. The room had green dots on the carpet so I would assume that they do or at some point show the pre-show. However today we just breezed by.
As we were being tossed around Alish and I were certain that Gma would not be in our time rover when we got back safely. Surprising to us she was still sitting in the front and was being held by Kiss. And I’m pretty sure its safe to say she will never go on a trip to get a dinosaur ever again.
The birthday girl after being traumatized for life.
It officially hit 10 and we were done with the park. Brittany and Joe just got to the park and met us in Dinoland. Since everything was done…Ma Pa and Gma decided to find something to do while we all decided to get back in line for Dinosaur. The line was still a walk on but this time we went to the other viewing room and this had a whole pac-man layout taped to the floor.
After dinosaur we headed over to Everest where the wait was now 15 minutes but moved fairly quickly. After we got a glimpse of the yeti we headed back to pandora to meet back up with our parents at the canteen.
It was a sad deserted area over in Harambe village… its weird not going to watch my favorite tumble monkeys.
When we got to satuli it all went down hill fast. Kiss and alish decided they wanted the food here, Danielle wanted to get the pods and I just was waiting until we headed to Sanaa to eat.
Everywhere on property you have to mobile order, so everyone did that when we got there and waited. Alish and Kiss decided to take their food to go while Danielle ate her meal quick here. My mother was confused why I wasn't eating and because of this canceled their order.
At this point I don’t really know what happened. But what I found out was that my mother thought we were all eating here together as a family, while she knew all I talked about before coming on this trip was eating at Sanaa and getting butter chicken. So this led everyone to be crabby, because they were hungry but didn’t really want to eat here so they decided to eat at flame tree instead.
We ended up following behind and meeting at the tree of life to get a family photo.
Since Ma wanted everyone to eat together we decided to head to Flame tree with them and basically watch them while they ate. We grabbed a table by the water and waited for Poca to make her rounds on her boat.
Our safari driver recommended the mac and cheese here during our ride so that was the meal that they ordered
They all seemed to enjoy it until Alish asked Gma if she liked her mac and cheese and thats when she stopped eating. Gma is not the biggest fan of mac and cheese and she's a kid when she finds out she is enjoying something that she tells herself she doesn’t like.
It was a little after noon and by this point I was ready to eat my arm off. So while they were finishing up their meals we decided to head off to AKL.
The idea to have lunch at Sanaa became super easy once they announced that they were one of the first restaurants to order to go. So because of this we decided to go for bread service and then I realized I could order a kids butter chicken meal and I was sold.
When we got to kidani our food wasn’t ready so we decided to head on outside to see some animals.
The CM working outside was full of so many facts and you could just tell how much he loved his job. One of the giraffes was 18 and gave birth, the fun fact about that is 18 years in human years is about 95.
Then Brittany found the wildebeest out and about and said “oh there are the ones who killed mufasa. I will never forgive for that”
it was finally close to 1 and we got the text saying that our food was ready!
The problem with take out is that Kidani is super small and doesn’t have a good seating area outside. So we headed back to the bus stop and took it took Jambo house where we sat pool side.
The $10 kids meal came with butter chicken, rice, a drink and dessert. That in my book is a steal and it was everything I wanted.
Our lunch talk was how Joe was still super bummed that our cruise over the summer got canceled. It took us years for us to all find time to plan and book a cruise and when we finally did it gets canceled. Right then and there we made a pack that when cruises open back up we will be getting on the first ship.
With all the covid talk we got on the topic of me basically going back to a closed state. NY was on the brink of closing yet again and every part of me just wanted to stay in florida if that was the case.
Overall take out lunch at Sanaa was a 10 out of 10 and I would highly recommend!
continue to next post
Last edited:
xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
Dreaming of Topolino's
Once we got back to the the Riviera all plans to lay by the pool were out. The sun decided it didn’t want to be seen all this trip so we just decided to not join the crowds and stay in the room. The two early mornings in a row caught up with us and we all passed out.
Around 3:45 Ma came sneaking into our room saying she forgot about getting her COVID test and needed to barrow Alish’s car. No one seemed to want to get up so I woke up and managed to find the self swab testing site that Disney has for CM, but because its state funded its open to the public. Gma told me to just leave her in FL because she didn’t want to get tested. Since that wasn't an option and the test is needed to enter NY state she was off to get a stick up her nose. Happy Birthday
Since I was up I decided to get ready for dinner and waited for everyone else to wake up.
Soon everyone got up and started moving. While the adults were away we decided to take Gma’s electric wheelchair a go, this ended up turning into a sugar rush race around the room. We set up the track, start in our room to the master bathroom, then to through the bedroom and into the living space, then finish back in our room.
The leader board ended up being
3rd - alish
2nd - me
1st - Kiss
Soon after the adults came walking into the room and told us the joy of testing. Then walked in Brittany and her Mom, they were joining us for dinner and since Brittany was on the reservation her magic band worked to open the door. This is when her mother learned just how crazy my family was. After a few drinks in the room we all headed upstairs to try out topolinos.
The original plan was to have a nice dinner over at California Grill, however they had a very limited menu and trying to get there seemed tough. So instead we opted to try Topolino’s where we just had to take an elevator to get there.
When we arrived at the restaurant, there was a CM who was taken temperatures upon arrival. There we also asked if there was any chance if we could all sit together, when making reservations it seemed like they were taken reservations for big parties anywhere on property. The CM was great and said they could definitely merge the two reservations together and get a table big enough for us.
The Birthday girl getting ready to enjoy a delicious birthday dinner
Our server was fantastic right off the bat. We all decided to get a drink, I went with the French Rose, this was a 10 out of 10, would definitely recommend. Others went with the Pomegranate Paradiso and then from there it was your basic beer and wine.
The main course was a dream…more than half of us went with the filet with truffle mashed potatoes and the others went with the rigatoni.
When I say I dream about the truffled potatoes I’m not kidding! These made the meal and I wasn’t the only one to rave about them. Brittany’s Mom and I bonded over how great this meal was. I was extremely happy to finish Gma’s potatoes that she didn’t want.
The rigatoni is made in house and this was also a great meal if you want to go for a cheaper option. If the potatoes weren’t a thing here I would definitely go back for the noodles. Overall everyone seemed to enjoy their meal. And while I rave over California Grill I think Topolino’s beat it in my book.
At the end our waiter brought out a little chocolate dessert for Gma for her birthday, she thought it was just the sweetest thing.
After dinner we decided to go check out the patio. If we weren’t in these COVID times this would definitely be a great place to watch fireworks. However thats not a thing at the moment so we just enjoyed the views.
And then it turned into a quick little photoshoot
And happy birthday to my favorite person, 82 years young
We all headed back to the room to keep the celebration going.
There we pulled out the cake for Gma and realized we forgot candles. This is when my mother thought it could be fun to burn down all of Riviera and use matches as candles.
It was a nice little hangout while we digested our food.
I ended up giving Brittany part of her Christmas gift, I managed to find the 25th Paris ears we wanted when we were there but they were sold out.
The rest of the night was tik tok talk with all the things we’ve learned from it and then it ended with both moms supporting us for the crazy plan we have for the near future.
Brittany and her mom left around 9:30ish. I decided to enjoy the view from our room.
Hello Epcot, wish you had some fireworks to watch from the comfort of my room.
We got ready for tomorrow and all the new things I was about to experience. And while we were getting settled, we decided to watch an episode of the mask singer. Then it was a good nights rest before I was dragged off to Universal in the morning.
continue to next post
Once we got back to the the Riviera all plans to lay by the pool were out. The sun decided it didn’t want to be seen all this trip so we just decided to not join the crowds and stay in the room. The two early mornings in a row caught up with us and we all passed out.
Around 3:45 Ma came sneaking into our room saying she forgot about getting her COVID test and needed to barrow Alish’s car. No one seemed to want to get up so I woke up and managed to find the self swab testing site that Disney has for CM, but because its state funded its open to the public. Gma told me to just leave her in FL because she didn’t want to get tested. Since that wasn't an option and the test is needed to enter NY state she was off to get a stick up her nose. Happy Birthday
Since I was up I decided to get ready for dinner and waited for everyone else to wake up.
Soon everyone got up and started moving. While the adults were away we decided to take Gma’s electric wheelchair a go, this ended up turning into a sugar rush race around the room. We set up the track, start in our room to the master bathroom, then to through the bedroom and into the living space, then finish back in our room.
The leader board ended up being
3rd - alish
2nd - me
1st - Kiss
Soon after the adults came walking into the room and told us the joy of testing. Then walked in Brittany and her Mom, they were joining us for dinner and since Brittany was on the reservation her magic band worked to open the door. This is when her mother learned just how crazy my family was. After a few drinks in the room we all headed upstairs to try out topolinos.
The original plan was to have a nice dinner over at California Grill, however they had a very limited menu and trying to get there seemed tough. So instead we opted to try Topolino’s where we just had to take an elevator to get there.
When we arrived at the restaurant, there was a CM who was taken temperatures upon arrival. There we also asked if there was any chance if we could all sit together, when making reservations it seemed like they were taken reservations for big parties anywhere on property. The CM was great and said they could definitely merge the two reservations together and get a table big enough for us.
The Birthday girl getting ready to enjoy a delicious birthday dinner
Our server was fantastic right off the bat. We all decided to get a drink, I went with the French Rose, this was a 10 out of 10, would definitely recommend. Others went with the Pomegranate Paradiso and then from there it was your basic beer and wine.
The main course was a dream…more than half of us went with the filet with truffle mashed potatoes and the others went with the rigatoni.
When I say I dream about the truffled potatoes I’m not kidding! These made the meal and I wasn’t the only one to rave about them. Brittany’s Mom and I bonded over how great this meal was. I was extremely happy to finish Gma’s potatoes that she didn’t want.
The rigatoni is made in house and this was also a great meal if you want to go for a cheaper option. If the potatoes weren’t a thing here I would definitely go back for the noodles. Overall everyone seemed to enjoy their meal. And while I rave over California Grill I think Topolino’s beat it in my book.
At the end our waiter brought out a little chocolate dessert for Gma for her birthday, she thought it was just the sweetest thing.
After dinner we decided to go check out the patio. If we weren’t in these COVID times this would definitely be a great place to watch fireworks. However thats not a thing at the moment so we just enjoyed the views.
And then it turned into a quick little photoshoot
And happy birthday to my favorite person, 82 years young
We all headed back to the room to keep the celebration going.
There we pulled out the cake for Gma and realized we forgot candles. This is when my mother thought it could be fun to burn down all of Riviera and use matches as candles.
It was a nice little hangout while we digested our food.
I ended up giving Brittany part of her Christmas gift, I managed to find the 25th Paris ears we wanted when we were there but they were sold out.
The rest of the night was tik tok talk with all the things we’ve learned from it and then it ended with both moms supporting us for the crazy plan we have for the near future.
Brittany and her mom left around 9:30ish. I decided to enjoy the view from our room.
Hello Epcot, wish you had some fireworks to watch from the comfort of my room.
We got ready for tomorrow and all the new things I was about to experience. And while we were getting settled, we decided to watch an episode of the mask singer. Then it was a good nights rest before I was dragged off to Universal in the morning.
continue to next post
Last edited:
xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
Stupid Universal
Disclaimer: I have lived on this earth for the past 28 years, I have never had a need or want to venture to Universal. For me Disney itself has more than enough stuff for me to do. However with 2020 being a year of crazy things happening it only seemed fitting to throw a bit of spice into my life. The original plan was to go to HHNs, Alish raves about it and I said I would come down and do that. Thank god that was canceled and I thought I was fine. With having to choose your parks and not having an AP, we had a lot of down time so the “lets go to universal” came up. Mostly from alish because she bought the one day, good until christmas pass for florida residents. Brittany and Joe were so thrilled that I was finally caving in and just renewed their APs. And I ended up buying an expensive one day one park ticket the day before we went. I also was forced to see which hogwarts house I was….everyone of my siblings were ravenclaws and I truly wanted to be a hufflepuff. Well apparently I was just your basic gryffindor and I was unimpressed.
This trip that was “covid times, short park hours” turned into early mornings everyday. Today we were up and out the door by 7:15. We met Brittany and Joe in a random ramen shop parking lot. With their APs they have free parking so Brittany jumped in our car so we didn't have to pay and we were off.
Now everything about today is going to be brand spanking new to me and unlike going to a Disney park overseas where I can at least kind of know what I’m doing. With that being said Alish said Universal is only good drunk…so before 8am we were slamming down seltzers.
As we were pregaming in the parking lot Joe was asking me what movies I’ve seen. Harry Potter? Yes but only the first one. The Mummy? No. Men in Black? No. ET? Yes, but I don’t remember it. Transformers? No. And it became very clear why I never came to Universal before I have never seen any of the movies.
With a pack finished we headed into the land of unknown. The nice thing is security being the first thing and not having to worry if you want to park hop…but with a smaller area unlike Disney’s property it makes sense. So we got through security and headed through city walk and to the park itself.
Then it was finally time to see what everyone loves about this park!
Upon first walking in, this park wins major points for their pop christmas music blasting.
Alish led us to our first ride of the morning, in which they all agreed that the potter section was the must do in the morning.
I assumed that the original harry potter section was in studios and not island of adventures, but apparently I was wrong. However we walked through the whole in the wall and entered what was not hogwarts.
The first thing that got really annoying was the locker for your bags situation. At first it was ok and then it became a hassle all throughout the day. Brittany and Alish were in charge of bags and we waited outside the line for them.
I may not know the movies, but I can say that the details in this queue were fantastic! (Brittany warned me ahead of time that this section has the best details)
And for the rest of the trip all we talked about was the video on youtube of some guy going up to one of these bank tellers petting his face and smacking it. How one just casual walks up to one…who knows? Why he did what he did? who knows.
It was still bright and early so the line was basically a walk on. This is the point where I will say that unlike Disney here at Universal the option of using hand sanitizer is not an option. They have one of their workers squirt the sanitizer in everyone’s hands before they line up for their ride vehicle.
Now the question how was my first ride at universal? It was ok…I had no clue what was happening and the 3D glasses made it hard to focus. While the whole plot and all of Harry Potter is nothing I know, what I do know is that Ron’s brother is for sure in Star Wars and thats all I could see.
Since the line was still short we decided to do it once again since everyone said that this was one of the best rides here.
After our second go around we decided to walk around the area (as if I understood any of it). So we grabbed our bags and first went to see if there were trolls in the bathroom (because thats what I remembered in the first movie) There weren’t any trolls and Brittany made me walk down the dark alley. Everyone had their wands and I can see why if you love the movies you would love this area.
We planned to come back to this area but knew we had a lot more of the park to explore. But before we left the wizarding world we went to check out the wand shop. And like the weird one I am I said I only want a wand if its voldemorts…than I saw his wand and it was ugly. So I take that back.
It was goodbye being a wizard and up next was the ride I heard good things about…the mummy
The locker rental line was longer than the actual line it self.
It was all going great, we got through the line so fast. We got into our car all locked in and ready to go. Thats when the lady in front started freaking out… “is this a roller coaster?!” Her family was laughing she was panicking and jumped out of the vehicle. The worker looked like she was going to LOOSE it. Because of this little stunt they had to shut down the ride. We all had to get out of the car and back in line. We had no clue how long restarting the ride would take…and I’m going to let you know it was a good half hour. As we stood and waited, the seltzers hit the bladder and I felt like I was going to die.
After watching 10 cars past through, we all cheered and we were ready to go!
I will say I also don’t know the mummy, but I liked this ride a whole lot better than the harry potter one. It would have been better if I didn’t feel like I was going to pee my pants. But overall I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
continue to next post
Disclaimer: I have lived on this earth for the past 28 years, I have never had a need or want to venture to Universal. For me Disney itself has more than enough stuff for me to do. However with 2020 being a year of crazy things happening it only seemed fitting to throw a bit of spice into my life. The original plan was to go to HHNs, Alish raves about it and I said I would come down and do that. Thank god that was canceled and I thought I was fine. With having to choose your parks and not having an AP, we had a lot of down time so the “lets go to universal” came up. Mostly from alish because she bought the one day, good until christmas pass for florida residents. Brittany and Joe were so thrilled that I was finally caving in and just renewed their APs. And I ended up buying an expensive one day one park ticket the day before we went. I also was forced to see which hogwarts house I was….everyone of my siblings were ravenclaws and I truly wanted to be a hufflepuff. Well apparently I was just your basic gryffindor and I was unimpressed.
This trip that was “covid times, short park hours” turned into early mornings everyday. Today we were up and out the door by 7:15. We met Brittany and Joe in a random ramen shop parking lot. With their APs they have free parking so Brittany jumped in our car so we didn't have to pay and we were off.
Now everything about today is going to be brand spanking new to me and unlike going to a Disney park overseas where I can at least kind of know what I’m doing. With that being said Alish said Universal is only good drunk…so before 8am we were slamming down seltzers.
As we were pregaming in the parking lot Joe was asking me what movies I’ve seen. Harry Potter? Yes but only the first one. The Mummy? No. Men in Black? No. ET? Yes, but I don’t remember it. Transformers? No. And it became very clear why I never came to Universal before I have never seen any of the movies.
With a pack finished we headed into the land of unknown. The nice thing is security being the first thing and not having to worry if you want to park hop…but with a smaller area unlike Disney’s property it makes sense. So we got through security and headed through city walk and to the park itself.
Then it was finally time to see what everyone loves about this park!
Upon first walking in, this park wins major points for their pop christmas music blasting.
Alish led us to our first ride of the morning, in which they all agreed that the potter section was the must do in the morning.
I assumed that the original harry potter section was in studios and not island of adventures, but apparently I was wrong. However we walked through the whole in the wall and entered what was not hogwarts.
The first thing that got really annoying was the locker for your bags situation. At first it was ok and then it became a hassle all throughout the day. Brittany and Alish were in charge of bags and we waited outside the line for them.
I may not know the movies, but I can say that the details in this queue were fantastic! (Brittany warned me ahead of time that this section has the best details)
And for the rest of the trip all we talked about was the video on youtube of some guy going up to one of these bank tellers petting his face and smacking it. How one just casual walks up to one…who knows? Why he did what he did? who knows.
It was still bright and early so the line was basically a walk on. This is the point where I will say that unlike Disney here at Universal the option of using hand sanitizer is not an option. They have one of their workers squirt the sanitizer in everyone’s hands before they line up for their ride vehicle.
Now the question how was my first ride at universal? It was ok…I had no clue what was happening and the 3D glasses made it hard to focus. While the whole plot and all of Harry Potter is nothing I know, what I do know is that Ron’s brother is for sure in Star Wars and thats all I could see.
Since the line was still short we decided to do it once again since everyone said that this was one of the best rides here.
After our second go around we decided to walk around the area (as if I understood any of it). So we grabbed our bags and first went to see if there were trolls in the bathroom (because thats what I remembered in the first movie) There weren’t any trolls and Brittany made me walk down the dark alley. Everyone had their wands and I can see why if you love the movies you would love this area.
We planned to come back to this area but knew we had a lot more of the park to explore. But before we left the wizarding world we went to check out the wand shop. And like the weird one I am I said I only want a wand if its voldemorts…than I saw his wand and it was ugly. So I take that back.
It was goodbye being a wizard and up next was the ride I heard good things about…the mummy
The locker rental line was longer than the actual line it self.
It was all going great, we got through the line so fast. We got into our car all locked in and ready to go. Thats when the lady in front started freaking out… “is this a roller coaster?!” Her family was laughing she was panicking and jumped out of the vehicle. The worker looked like she was going to LOOSE it. Because of this little stunt they had to shut down the ride. We all had to get out of the car and back in line. We had no clue how long restarting the ride would take…and I’m going to let you know it was a good half hour. As we stood and waited, the seltzers hit the bladder and I felt like I was going to die.
After watching 10 cars past through, we all cheered and we were ready to go!
I will say I also don’t know the mummy, but I liked this ride a whole lot better than the harry potter one. It would have been better if I didn’t feel like I was going to pee my pants. But overall I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
continue to next post
Last edited:
xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
Tooters All Around!
After we got our bags back from the lockers we ran…and I mean ran to the bathroom.
Luckily for us the Macy’s day parade floats were just right outside the restroom so we decided to do that today.
At the end of the walkthrough there was a line for you to social meet Santa.
Rip Ride Rocket…the main reason why I paid $100 to be here today. This is Alish’s favorite ride and truthfully the reason we came to this park instead of island of adventures (because I wanted to see a dinosaur) The only thing I knew about this ride was that you choose a song you want to listen to while you ride.
This ride has the craziest security, like every other ride put your bags in a locker. And then later in the line you have to go through metal detecters to make sure you left everything in the locker. As we waited everyone started looking up the secret songs and truthfully the stress of just getting a normal song was getting to me. As we got closer everyone was telling me you only have so much time to get your song because the ride itself is constantly moving. So I went with the classic Fergie - Glamorous and this is definitely the best ride at this park.
After Rocket, Brittany was in need of some caffeine so we headed over to Starbucks.
Across the water was the Marylin show so we “watched” from afar. Then right behind us was another show that was about to start. The drummer boys came out for a short little set. Now Universal had markers to stay socially distant for the entertainment around the park, however this didn’t seem to work. While it started with everyone on a dot, with those passing and stopping those dots became nothing but a sticker on the ground.
We watched for a bit and left before the whole crowd dispersed. Next up we headed to the back of the park to Men In Black. First, get in the line to get a locker…then get in the regular line.
The sun was coming out and it was starting to become one of those hot florida days where you want to be either by the pool or in the AC.
Now lets go get some aliens!
Now while this is a fun little shooting game, I completely sucked and had no clue what was going on. Everyone was getting points and then at the end it came to my attention that our vehicle kept spinning in circles because Joe was shooting against his own team and hitting our car to get all the points. Joe ended up with 600,000+ points while I got a whomping 60,000 points.
After Men in Black we headed through the Simpson area and over to ET. On our way over there I saw my childhood waiting for someone to come over and greet it. Barney was out and just chilling on a stage.
ET had the longest line yet at 60 mins so we decided it was a no go at the moment. We were all hot and we were all getting hungry. Two things that don’t mix well. So because of this we decided to head out of the park and to city walk to get something to eat.
We were looking for a cheaper option for food and while my siblings all chose BK for their whopper bar, I went with Joe and Brittany to the Bread Place and got an expensive sandwich.
Brittany told me how happy her mother was after leaving the resort yesterday. I was beyond relieved, because that was her first experience with my crazy family and I was worried for her. My family can be a lot, especially when we are together.
Joe then brought up that he would like to be a part of a staycation and not be the one stuck at home with the animals. I died, so the both of them seemed to already plan it out. Another trip at Fort Wilderness and Joe told me he would get back with the dates he has off.
The siblings brought their food over to us and since the day was still young they all started looking at the beer menu at the pub we passed. Everyone seemed to find something they wanted so after we ate we all headed over there. Just to find out that there was a long wait…so off to Fat Tuesdays it was.
Fat Tuesdays was the better option because it was frozen drinks to cool us down on this warm sunny day. Everyone tried to decide what drink they wanted (and with 6 options it shouldn't have been that hard) I ended up with the margarita and eye candy which was blue raspberry and rum. And it wouldn't be a party with out everyone deciding to get a tooter as well.
The sun was hitting us hard and there was no shade, so we drank down our delicious cold beverages and headed back to the park.
It wouldn't be a trip to universal if you didn’t take a picture with the ball. So after a decade of knowing each other she finally was able to drag me to Universal studios.
continue to next post
After we got our bags back from the lockers we ran…and I mean ran to the bathroom.
Luckily for us the Macy’s day parade floats were just right outside the restroom so we decided to do that today.
At the end of the walkthrough there was a line for you to social meet Santa.
Rip Ride Rocket…the main reason why I paid $100 to be here today. This is Alish’s favorite ride and truthfully the reason we came to this park instead of island of adventures (because I wanted to see a dinosaur) The only thing I knew about this ride was that you choose a song you want to listen to while you ride.
This ride has the craziest security, like every other ride put your bags in a locker. And then later in the line you have to go through metal detecters to make sure you left everything in the locker. As we waited everyone started looking up the secret songs and truthfully the stress of just getting a normal song was getting to me. As we got closer everyone was telling me you only have so much time to get your song because the ride itself is constantly moving. So I went with the classic Fergie - Glamorous and this is definitely the best ride at this park.
After Rocket, Brittany was in need of some caffeine so we headed over to Starbucks.
Across the water was the Marylin show so we “watched” from afar. Then right behind us was another show that was about to start. The drummer boys came out for a short little set. Now Universal had markers to stay socially distant for the entertainment around the park, however this didn’t seem to work. While it started with everyone on a dot, with those passing and stopping those dots became nothing but a sticker on the ground.
We watched for a bit and left before the whole crowd dispersed. Next up we headed to the back of the park to Men In Black. First, get in the line to get a locker…then get in the regular line.
The sun was coming out and it was starting to become one of those hot florida days where you want to be either by the pool or in the AC.
Now lets go get some aliens!
Now while this is a fun little shooting game, I completely sucked and had no clue what was going on. Everyone was getting points and then at the end it came to my attention that our vehicle kept spinning in circles because Joe was shooting against his own team and hitting our car to get all the points. Joe ended up with 600,000+ points while I got a whomping 60,000 points.
After Men in Black we headed through the Simpson area and over to ET. On our way over there I saw my childhood waiting for someone to come over and greet it. Barney was out and just chilling on a stage.
ET had the longest line yet at 60 mins so we decided it was a no go at the moment. We were all hot and we were all getting hungry. Two things that don’t mix well. So because of this we decided to head out of the park and to city walk to get something to eat.
We were looking for a cheaper option for food and while my siblings all chose BK for their whopper bar, I went with Joe and Brittany to the Bread Place and got an expensive sandwich.
Brittany told me how happy her mother was after leaving the resort yesterday. I was beyond relieved, because that was her first experience with my crazy family and I was worried for her. My family can be a lot, especially when we are together.
Joe then brought up that he would like to be a part of a staycation and not be the one stuck at home with the animals. I died, so the both of them seemed to already plan it out. Another trip at Fort Wilderness and Joe told me he would get back with the dates he has off.
The siblings brought their food over to us and since the day was still young they all started looking at the beer menu at the pub we passed. Everyone seemed to find something they wanted so after we ate we all headed over there. Just to find out that there was a long wait…so off to Fat Tuesdays it was.
Fat Tuesdays was the better option because it was frozen drinks to cool us down on this warm sunny day. Everyone tried to decide what drink they wanted (and with 6 options it shouldn't have been that hard) I ended up with the margarita and eye candy which was blue raspberry and rum. And it wouldn't be a party with out everyone deciding to get a tooter as well.
The sun was hitting us hard and there was no shade, so we drank down our delicious cold beverages and headed back to the park.
It wouldn't be a trip to universal if you didn’t take a picture with the ball. So after a decade of knowing each other she finally was able to drag me to Universal studios.
continue to next post
Last edited:
xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
Goodbye Universal
We headed back into the park and the first stop was Finnegan’s because apparently the boys weren’t done with drinking. And it became a thing when one drinks…we all drink!
Universal had a nice little gated up rest area, where you could go and relax with your mask off…as long as you were social distancing of course.
Here we once again brought up the next staycation at Fort Wilderness and planned that. As well as Brittany and Kiss looking up cats. Kiss is obsessed with Brittany and Joe’s cat, as am I. I wouldn’t really call ourselves cat people but with hers its a game changer….so Kiss wanted to know where they got him because he now also wants to get one.
The one thing I truly like about Universal is that its got the sound stage/ backlot feel. Something that Hollywood Studios had and since it was taken away this is the closing thing we have to Streets of America.
We wasted as much time as we could before we had to head over to the animal show. Brittany is obsessed with everything animal show possible.
While we got in line and waited to be let in Kiss and Joe went off in search of another beer. At this point I let Brittany know that she picked a good one, Kiss loved hanging out with Joe. It was a nice bromance between them and for once we knew he wasn’t going anywhere.
They ended up waiting on the drink and we headed inside. This animal show was better than the bird show I sat through for Brittany at DAK… but a lot of the animals who were suppose to be doing all the fun tricks decided today was the day they just wanted to be lazy. I totally can relate to that and the audience got a kick out of them not doing anything.
After the show we headed back to ET in hopes that the wait time went down…it didn’t. However all the characters were out and social distant meeting.
I freaked when I saw my childhood right before my eyes. Not only was Barney out again, but BJ and Baby Bop were out.
We lost the boys yet again to a beer cart so we browsed around the Spongebob shop
We opted to come back for ET and head over to the make up horror show for Joe. On our way over there Brittany was talking about the scare zones for HHN. She said how Joe wouldn’t go with her in pervious years and planned to go to the next one. We talked Joe into going with us for our Staycation if it happens…but he said “I will only go if we get drunk” And truthfully I don’t think I could go if I was sober. Scary and Sam don’t mix…I will be the one who will be crying on the floor.
As we waited in the theater for the show to start Brittany was telling me all her plans for her honeymoon this summer. The hope and plan is to go to Ireland and thats when Joe told me “As soon as we booked it Brittany asked if she could invite you” So at least Joe knows that when he ties the knot with Brittany he gets to deal with our friendship for the rest of his life.
The show itself was ok…very predictable with the “scare” but it was a thing we could knock off of the list. I knew there was someone in the werewolf costume and Brittany kept telling me no. And with these covid times they can’t choose someone from the audience and have a worker pretend to be a random guest.
After the show we headed back to ET. This time we got stuck for one of the holiday shows. It seemed like a fun thing to watch….but then to stand and watch it I sort of felt awkward.
We headed back to ET for the third time and decided to join the crowd and finally wait for it.
The line seemed to move quickly…the best part was the smell. Everyone talks about this smell and I can agree that its pretty great. Joe informed us that they have a candle at home of the scent because they enjoy it that much. The ride itself was interesting. The only thing I knew about this ride was that someone crushed their foot on this ride, everyone was confused about that. They had no clue how it happened and spent the whole ride pondering it.
This ride was a ride….it seemed like one of those “classic” rides that has a fan base following causing it to have a high wait for no reason at all. But we came and we conquered and I still think to this day about the persons foot.
We headed back through the simpson area and back to Men in Black because this seemed to be a group favorite
Fighting aliens was not my forte and truthfully this round was worse than the first time. It was dark by the time we got out and we had to go check out the old Jaws restroom because apparently the women side only has one leg. The more you know.
We headed back into the wizarding world because I needed to try the butter beer that everyone raves about.
Butter beer deserves the hype…I loved it! And with the competition of Lefou’s brew, well there isn’t a competition Butter beer is by far superior
We walked around the dark alley ways and found ourselves waiting for the fire show. As we were waiting a worker was walking around telling everyone that the dragon doesn’t go off at a certain time and that she breathes fire when she wants to. I might be new here but I knew that was bologna. However I knew she was only saying that to disperse anyone from forming a crowd.
However I waited because I was not leaving till I saw it. And just like that on the hour we got our 10 second of thrill.
After we headed out since we were right by the exit and we started heading towards the front of the park. Joe said we should do Transformers before we left so we jumped in the line.
We all seemed to hit a wall in this line. We were just walking zombies at this point. The only thing keeping me alive was the christmas music and the streets of universal reminded me of what the streets of america used to be during christmas…RIP Osborne Lights.
Once we got to the inside line part, there were a good 5 different rooms. This made things tricky when waiting on your 6 feet apart marker and not knowing if you could move forward. At point Brittany started walking and came running back telling us move back move back we made a mistake! The group behind us started laughing with us and these knew policies. The ride itself was ok, just another 3D ride and again another movie I don’t know. So I can’t be the judge.
Before we officially called it a night we decided to Rip Ride Rocket one last time. And this time everyone was choosing a secret song. The wait sign side 90 mins but we waited 20 min max. Luckily this gave me less time to freak out about making sure I hold down the right thing and punch in the right secret code. But in the long run I ended up with song 302 I want you back Jackson 5 and the whole time I felt like I was a baby groot dancing.
At this point it was only 8 and we were zonked, we decided to call it a day/night here at Universal. It was a different change for me and while I was always so against it, it wasn’t as bad. However I will still argue to everyone who said it has more thrill rides than Disney, they are all the same vehicle with 3D effects nothing different. Would I come back again? Well I agreed to come to horror nights.
We all headed to City walk to find some dinner, at this point we separated from Brittany and Joe.
We grabbed some Panda and headed back to the land I love, the land I belong…Disney property.
We ended up getting back to the Riviera a little before 9:30, ate our late dinner and called it a night. Tomorrow I had to wake up bright and early in hopes of getting a Rise of the Resistance boarding pass.
continue to next post
We headed back into the park and the first stop was Finnegan’s because apparently the boys weren’t done with drinking. And it became a thing when one drinks…we all drink!
Universal had a nice little gated up rest area, where you could go and relax with your mask off…as long as you were social distancing of course.
Here we once again brought up the next staycation at Fort Wilderness and planned that. As well as Brittany and Kiss looking up cats. Kiss is obsessed with Brittany and Joe’s cat, as am I. I wouldn’t really call ourselves cat people but with hers its a game changer….so Kiss wanted to know where they got him because he now also wants to get one.
The one thing I truly like about Universal is that its got the sound stage/ backlot feel. Something that Hollywood Studios had and since it was taken away this is the closing thing we have to Streets of America.
We wasted as much time as we could before we had to head over to the animal show. Brittany is obsessed with everything animal show possible.
While we got in line and waited to be let in Kiss and Joe went off in search of another beer. At this point I let Brittany know that she picked a good one, Kiss loved hanging out with Joe. It was a nice bromance between them and for once we knew he wasn’t going anywhere.
They ended up waiting on the drink and we headed inside. This animal show was better than the bird show I sat through for Brittany at DAK… but a lot of the animals who were suppose to be doing all the fun tricks decided today was the day they just wanted to be lazy. I totally can relate to that and the audience got a kick out of them not doing anything.
After the show we headed back to ET in hopes that the wait time went down…it didn’t. However all the characters were out and social distant meeting.
I freaked when I saw my childhood right before my eyes. Not only was Barney out again, but BJ and Baby Bop were out.
We lost the boys yet again to a beer cart so we browsed around the Spongebob shop
We opted to come back for ET and head over to the make up horror show for Joe. On our way over there Brittany was talking about the scare zones for HHN. She said how Joe wouldn’t go with her in pervious years and planned to go to the next one. We talked Joe into going with us for our Staycation if it happens…but he said “I will only go if we get drunk” And truthfully I don’t think I could go if I was sober. Scary and Sam don’t mix…I will be the one who will be crying on the floor.
As we waited in the theater for the show to start Brittany was telling me all her plans for her honeymoon this summer. The hope and plan is to go to Ireland and thats when Joe told me “As soon as we booked it Brittany asked if she could invite you” So at least Joe knows that when he ties the knot with Brittany he gets to deal with our friendship for the rest of his life.
The show itself was ok…very predictable with the “scare” but it was a thing we could knock off of the list. I knew there was someone in the werewolf costume and Brittany kept telling me no. And with these covid times they can’t choose someone from the audience and have a worker pretend to be a random guest.
After the show we headed back to ET. This time we got stuck for one of the holiday shows. It seemed like a fun thing to watch….but then to stand and watch it I sort of felt awkward.
We headed back to ET for the third time and decided to join the crowd and finally wait for it.
The line seemed to move quickly…the best part was the smell. Everyone talks about this smell and I can agree that its pretty great. Joe informed us that they have a candle at home of the scent because they enjoy it that much. The ride itself was interesting. The only thing I knew about this ride was that someone crushed their foot on this ride, everyone was confused about that. They had no clue how it happened and spent the whole ride pondering it.
This ride was a ride….it seemed like one of those “classic” rides that has a fan base following causing it to have a high wait for no reason at all. But we came and we conquered and I still think to this day about the persons foot.
We headed back through the simpson area and back to Men in Black because this seemed to be a group favorite
Fighting aliens was not my forte and truthfully this round was worse than the first time. It was dark by the time we got out and we had to go check out the old Jaws restroom because apparently the women side only has one leg. The more you know.
We headed back into the wizarding world because I needed to try the butter beer that everyone raves about.
Butter beer deserves the hype…I loved it! And with the competition of Lefou’s brew, well there isn’t a competition Butter beer is by far superior
We walked around the dark alley ways and found ourselves waiting for the fire show. As we were waiting a worker was walking around telling everyone that the dragon doesn’t go off at a certain time and that she breathes fire when she wants to. I might be new here but I knew that was bologna. However I knew she was only saying that to disperse anyone from forming a crowd.
However I waited because I was not leaving till I saw it. And just like that on the hour we got our 10 second of thrill.
After we headed out since we were right by the exit and we started heading towards the front of the park. Joe said we should do Transformers before we left so we jumped in the line.
We all seemed to hit a wall in this line. We were just walking zombies at this point. The only thing keeping me alive was the christmas music and the streets of universal reminded me of what the streets of america used to be during christmas…RIP Osborne Lights.
Once we got to the inside line part, there were a good 5 different rooms. This made things tricky when waiting on your 6 feet apart marker and not knowing if you could move forward. At point Brittany started walking and came running back telling us move back move back we made a mistake! The group behind us started laughing with us and these knew policies. The ride itself was ok, just another 3D ride and again another movie I don’t know. So I can’t be the judge.
Before we officially called it a night we decided to Rip Ride Rocket one last time. And this time everyone was choosing a secret song. The wait sign side 90 mins but we waited 20 min max. Luckily this gave me less time to freak out about making sure I hold down the right thing and punch in the right secret code. But in the long run I ended up with song 302 I want you back Jackson 5 and the whole time I felt like I was a baby groot dancing.
At this point it was only 8 and we were zonked, we decided to call it a day/night here at Universal. It was a different change for me and while I was always so against it, it wasn’t as bad. However I will still argue to everyone who said it has more thrill rides than Disney, they are all the same vehicle with 3D effects nothing different. Would I come back again? Well I agreed to come to horror nights.
We all headed to City walk to find some dinner, at this point we separated from Brittany and Joe.
We grabbed some Panda and headed back to the land I love, the land I belong…Disney property.
We ended up getting back to the Riviera a little before 9:30, ate our late dinner and called it a night. Tomorrow I had to wake up bright and early in hopes of getting a Rise of the Resistance boarding pass.
continue to next post
Last edited:
xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
Twerk With The Resistance
Today was a very stressful morning…my alarm went off at 6:55am in hopes to be lucky enough to get boarding passes for rise of the resistance. Lucky for us that they just changed the “lottery” time right before this trip. So instead of waiting until you are in the park at 10 to get one you now can lay in the comfort of your bed and wake up at 7 to try. This is great, if for some chance you don’t get a boarding pass you don’t have to waste you park ticket.
So it hit 7 and everyone was on their phone…I somehow got the lucky touch and was able to get everyone a boarding pass. I could have cried. But I didn’t. Instead I tried to go back to sleep but I was just to excited. So instead I decided to hang out with the rents on the balcony and chatted about my adventures at Universal.
The first mistake of the day was having 10am stuck in our heads to get boarding passes because we just then all said “park at 10” and forgot the park actually opened at 9. This would have been fine however we were waiting for Brittany to get to the resort and she planned to get there at 9. So our plan to get to runaway railway first was not going to be a thing.
As soon as Brittany arrived we headed over to the skyliner and the family was already to a crabby start.
We made it to Studios and got through security nice and quick.
Here’s where we ran into another bump in the road for the day. Back on my college program my parents came to visit and we did the Fantasmic dining package. It was their last day and it got rained out. So we went to guest relations to see if they could do anything for us. We weren’t expecting them to give us 4 free park passes but they did and I was holding on to the code they gave me on a post it note for the past 6 years. 6 years I had 4 free tickets to get into hollywood studios, the only downfall was they had to be used all at the same time (hence why I never used it) Alish and all CM were blocked out for studios so it just made sense to call and see if we could use the tickets now. Prior to the trip we called, got the tickets linked to our party and this morning we were able to get everyones boarding pass. However even with all of this they still couldn’t get in.
Alish went to guest relations outside the park and said there was a long line. I decided to go to the one inside the park to see if they could help me. Sure enough they could and I got 4 tickets. I then had to run back out to give them to everyone. Everyone was finally in and we could head over to Galaxy’s edge.
Now let me start off by saying I have waited forever to get on this ride. Thanks to pre covid I watched all the star wars movies because of this ride.
I also love my family dearly, however this is a fast pace line. The difficulty of trying to get a wheelchair throw it was awful. I didn’t even have to do it! Kiss took over controlling Gma because she was getting worked up with banging into things and not making turns. Then trying to rush to “break free” and actually get into the ride vehicle was suppose to feel rushed, and we were not able to rush as we tried cramming Gma in.
Now my overall thought on this ride…AMAZING! I’m so glad I actually like star wars because it would have been so depressing if I didn’t and had no clue what was happening.
With each different showroom they had us all on certain colored dots that were separated and divided with plexiglass.
Poe is my absolute favorite…besides anakin of course.
Walking into this room….I died! You see pictures but theres something about being there in person
They rush you out of the room to a small hallway and this is when the first order was very rude to me. I was told red dot…so there I stood just waiting, getting exciting…twerking a little. And thats when this girl comes up to me yells at me and tells me to turn around. I DIED, I just got yelled at for twerking and then her snarky comment about how she would like to see if I even remembered what color she put me on without looking. Excuse me miss…its red, like darth vaders lightsaber. (These are the CMs I truly enjoy, they make the experience so much more memorable)
It was another room where this time we saw Ron’s brother from yesterdays Universal day. Brittany was shook that she never realized they were the same person…the more you know.
We finally got to the ride part and if I was a crier I would have cried. This ride is amazing! I loved it so much!
After RotR we made our way through Toy story land. Our parents had yet to see it and just like any crowded Disney day, this land was packed! We didn’t know what else we wanted to do so we decided to check out the wait for mania. We had reservations for Oga’s and didn’t want to go to far.
THIS LINE! It was never ending. It was out of the land and looped throughout the new Incredibles area. The sign said 40 mins and none of us believed that for one second. But because this was one of the only things we wanted to do we decided to get in line and complain about the wait
I guess maybe the wait time was actually right because we were constantly moving. It took us no time to get back to the land itself and to the actual queue.
The wait ended up being on 20 minutes and we were all shocked. The line we got in looked awful! So a note to remember the 6 feet apart markings can really fool you into thinking the wait is too long to wait in.
The 20 minute wait was great until they informed us that they put us on the wrong side in order to get Gma on. That’s not something you want to hear. We went from a constant moving line to a dead stop. There was a line of wheelchair parties and only one vehicle to accommodate them, meaning you had to wait the 5 min ride time on top of loading and unloading. Because of this a CM came up to us and gave us re-rides for any ride in the park minus the top ones, no star wars, no railway, no slinky. In a world of no Fps we gladly accepted them.
How many CMs does it take to get one wheelchair into the ride vehicle?
We got on at 12:05 and had reservations at 12:10…meaning we had to sprint in order to get there.
Brittany and I tried so hard to get all the aliens to get the secret bonus level and we failed miserably! One day I will get it. And today was just another victory for me.
As soon as we got off, Kiss and Alish booked it passed the crowd, while Brittany Danielle and me got stuck by the slow moving people. Once we hit Galaxys edge we made a mad dash to Oga’s
continue to next post
Today was a very stressful morning…my alarm went off at 6:55am in hopes to be lucky enough to get boarding passes for rise of the resistance. Lucky for us that they just changed the “lottery” time right before this trip. So instead of waiting until you are in the park at 10 to get one you now can lay in the comfort of your bed and wake up at 7 to try. This is great, if for some chance you don’t get a boarding pass you don’t have to waste you park ticket.
So it hit 7 and everyone was on their phone…I somehow got the lucky touch and was able to get everyone a boarding pass. I could have cried. But I didn’t. Instead I tried to go back to sleep but I was just to excited. So instead I decided to hang out with the rents on the balcony and chatted about my adventures at Universal.
The first mistake of the day was having 10am stuck in our heads to get boarding passes because we just then all said “park at 10” and forgot the park actually opened at 9. This would have been fine however we were waiting for Brittany to get to the resort and she planned to get there at 9. So our plan to get to runaway railway first was not going to be a thing.
As soon as Brittany arrived we headed over to the skyliner and the family was already to a crabby start.
We made it to Studios and got through security nice and quick.
Here’s where we ran into another bump in the road for the day. Back on my college program my parents came to visit and we did the Fantasmic dining package. It was their last day and it got rained out. So we went to guest relations to see if they could do anything for us. We weren’t expecting them to give us 4 free park passes but they did and I was holding on to the code they gave me on a post it note for the past 6 years. 6 years I had 4 free tickets to get into hollywood studios, the only downfall was they had to be used all at the same time (hence why I never used it) Alish and all CM were blocked out for studios so it just made sense to call and see if we could use the tickets now. Prior to the trip we called, got the tickets linked to our party and this morning we were able to get everyones boarding pass. However even with all of this they still couldn’t get in.
Alish went to guest relations outside the park and said there was a long line. I decided to go to the one inside the park to see if they could help me. Sure enough they could and I got 4 tickets. I then had to run back out to give them to everyone. Everyone was finally in and we could head over to Galaxy’s edge.
Now let me start off by saying I have waited forever to get on this ride. Thanks to pre covid I watched all the star wars movies because of this ride.
I also love my family dearly, however this is a fast pace line. The difficulty of trying to get a wheelchair throw it was awful. I didn’t even have to do it! Kiss took over controlling Gma because she was getting worked up with banging into things and not making turns. Then trying to rush to “break free” and actually get into the ride vehicle was suppose to feel rushed, and we were not able to rush as we tried cramming Gma in.
Now my overall thought on this ride…AMAZING! I’m so glad I actually like star wars because it would have been so depressing if I didn’t and had no clue what was happening.
With each different showroom they had us all on certain colored dots that were separated and divided with plexiglass.
Poe is my absolute favorite…besides anakin of course.
Walking into this room….I died! You see pictures but theres something about being there in person
They rush you out of the room to a small hallway and this is when the first order was very rude to me. I was told red dot…so there I stood just waiting, getting exciting…twerking a little. And thats when this girl comes up to me yells at me and tells me to turn around. I DIED, I just got yelled at for twerking and then her snarky comment about how she would like to see if I even remembered what color she put me on without looking. Excuse me miss…its red, like darth vaders lightsaber. (These are the CMs I truly enjoy, they make the experience so much more memorable)
It was another room where this time we saw Ron’s brother from yesterdays Universal day. Brittany was shook that she never realized they were the same person…the more you know.
We finally got to the ride part and if I was a crier I would have cried. This ride is amazing! I loved it so much!
After RotR we made our way through Toy story land. Our parents had yet to see it and just like any crowded Disney day, this land was packed! We didn’t know what else we wanted to do so we decided to check out the wait for mania. We had reservations for Oga’s and didn’t want to go to far.
THIS LINE! It was never ending. It was out of the land and looped throughout the new Incredibles area. The sign said 40 mins and none of us believed that for one second. But because this was one of the only things we wanted to do we decided to get in line and complain about the wait
I guess maybe the wait time was actually right because we were constantly moving. It took us no time to get back to the land itself and to the actual queue.
The wait ended up being on 20 minutes and we were all shocked. The line we got in looked awful! So a note to remember the 6 feet apart markings can really fool you into thinking the wait is too long to wait in.
The 20 minute wait was great until they informed us that they put us on the wrong side in order to get Gma on. That’s not something you want to hear. We went from a constant moving line to a dead stop. There was a line of wheelchair parties and only one vehicle to accommodate them, meaning you had to wait the 5 min ride time on top of loading and unloading. Because of this a CM came up to us and gave us re-rides for any ride in the park minus the top ones, no star wars, no railway, no slinky. In a world of no Fps we gladly accepted them.
How many CMs does it take to get one wheelchair into the ride vehicle?
We got on at 12:05 and had reservations at 12:10…meaning we had to sprint in order to get there.
Brittany and I tried so hard to get all the aliens to get the secret bonus level and we failed miserably! One day I will get it. And today was just another victory for me.
As soon as we got off, Kiss and Alish booked it passed the crowd, while Brittany Danielle and me got stuck by the slow moving people. Once we hit Galaxys edge we made a mad dash to Oga’s
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xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
Drinking In the Galaxy
After running to Oga’s we had to wait a bit before we were called to come in. When it was our turn we were ushered to our own little alcove in the back. Disney loves the QR codes, so we scanned it and checked out the drink menu. The real struggle was just picking one…I could have chosen a few but that bill would not be fun. So one drink it was and more reasons to come back.
First round in the galaxy
I ended up with the Jedi Mind Trick, however the Bespin Fizz almost won. The was great, thoroughly enjoyed it.
Kiss and Brittany got the Jet Juice and as the CM told them…its the smallest…but strongest in the galaxy. When we say the little shot glass it came in we all died. It was an expensive shot glass of juice but it was good.
Alish got the T-16 Skyhopper, AMAZING! The half and half threw me when I read what was in it but it made the drink. Alish loved this so much that she tried making it at home over christmas time and it was AWFUL. More like sky trash.
Danielle was the big spender with the $50 drink. The Yub Nub. The drink was a 10 out of 10 but the only way you can get this drink is if you get the mug to go with it…hence the price.
The CM came around and asked if we wanted another round. Brittany and I passed, but everyone else decided to get one more. Kiss and Alish got one of the beers…but said it was just your average beer nothing special. And Danielle got the Fuzzy Tauntaun. I was excited about that because I was curious about the mouth numbing foam. Covid times but its ok to share drinks with family right?!
The fuzzy tauntaun is not something I would ever order. The foam is not the numbing I was expecting. The way I can describe it is its like that minty listerine feeling, almost that tingly feeling but makes your mouth super watery at the same time. That’s a 0 out of 10 from me.
While everyone was finishing their drinks we decided it would be best to mobile order some lunch as well as some blue milks. Kiss was the kindest and told Brittany and I that he would buy our blue milks since we didn’t get a second drink in the cantina. He told Brittany it was her wedding gift from him. Kiss also told Danielle that if she wanted a blue milk that she needed to order it because he didn’t think she needed more alcohol.
We paid our bill and then headed over to the milk stand. Kylo was out…and it was a little bit awkward without them walking around. There was no talking, just music playing in the background while they stood in the same spot just staring down the crowd.
When we got to the Milk Stand Danielle forgot that Kiss told her he was not getting her one and got mad. So she ordered one for herself.
The mood then drastically changed when Alish questioned why she got a different shaped cup. That comment worsened her mood very quickly, she ordered a plain blue milk and not one with rum like everyone else. We all tried telling her that she didn’t need the rum, that it was fine…save the money. That was not what she wanted to hear and told us she was an adult and could choose the alcoholic version if she wanted to. I was over the whole situation and just wanted to get a picture with my blue milk because I am a basic disney girl. So to make everyone be quiet about it, I traded my blue milk with Danielle’s and walked away from the situation.
My food was ready for pickup, so we headed over to Ronto Roasters to pick up my wrap and then we ran to go see Rey.
Danielle had her reservation to build her lightsaber and asked if I wanted to go with her. I told her no because I wanted to eat and meet back up with our family. I guess it was another thing she didn’t want to hear because she told me if I didn’t go then I couldn’t take pictures with it.
I still opted with my choice and went to pizza rizzo. Walking in there I instantly wish I could eat more because it smelled so good. But I had my wrap that I was dying to try. This wrap is HIGHLY talked about and I needed to see if it was worth the hype (because we all know most hyped up things are not all that worth it)
HOWEVER the ronto wrap gets a 10 out of 10 from me. Loved it
During lunch I called my mother to see what their plan was. They just finished eating and were leaving the lighting mcqueen show. The plain was to meet up at Runaway railway and wait in the forever long line together.
We met up at the theater and the line was long and confusing. It weaved all over in not a normal way. Then to top it off the sun was out to play. Alish ran to starbucks to get a venti water to share. The only thing getting me through the outside line was the cutest child behind us. While she had a hard time keeping her 6 part distance (because she was a toddler) her mother asked her if she was choosing to be with another family because if so we wouldn't want her. While we were almost inside Danielle finished her Lightsaber making and jumped in line with us.
And before we could go in we had to get ride of the drink, leaving Alish to water the plants so she could put the cold water in her water bottle.
The queue was for sure playing main street electrical parade music.
The sad part was no pre show…so what I believe normally happens is that the screen explodes and you enter the cartoon world. Instead you just have to catch on, or not even know that happens. Because I asked Brittany if that happened her first time on it and she didn’t even realize that was a thing.
Runaway Railway…I wish I could love you but The Great Movie Ride was still better in my opinion. To start I’m not overly thrilled with the new cartoon itself, so when they announced that this attraction was based around them I knew it wasn’t going to be a favorite. I’m however excited to see more trackless rides coming to the parks, I can now stop obsessing over Pooh in Tokyo (however probably never will because that ride is great) Brittany said that there is so much space, that its based on cartoons and is all flat and screens. I 100% agree, there felt like a lot of wasted space. But another plus is the smells…it smells even better than ET. And overall the best section is Daisy and the dancing room.
We headed out of the cartoon world and headed to Gma’s favorite ride and one she requested to go on. Welcome to the Twilight Zone!
continue to next post
After running to Oga’s we had to wait a bit before we were called to come in. When it was our turn we were ushered to our own little alcove in the back. Disney loves the QR codes, so we scanned it and checked out the drink menu. The real struggle was just picking one…I could have chosen a few but that bill would not be fun. So one drink it was and more reasons to come back.
First round in the galaxy
I ended up with the Jedi Mind Trick, however the Bespin Fizz almost won. The was great, thoroughly enjoyed it.
Kiss and Brittany got the Jet Juice and as the CM told them…its the smallest…but strongest in the galaxy. When we say the little shot glass it came in we all died. It was an expensive shot glass of juice but it was good.
Alish got the T-16 Skyhopper, AMAZING! The half and half threw me when I read what was in it but it made the drink. Alish loved this so much that she tried making it at home over christmas time and it was AWFUL. More like sky trash.
Danielle was the big spender with the $50 drink. The Yub Nub. The drink was a 10 out of 10 but the only way you can get this drink is if you get the mug to go with it…hence the price.
The CM came around and asked if we wanted another round. Brittany and I passed, but everyone else decided to get one more. Kiss and Alish got one of the beers…but said it was just your average beer nothing special. And Danielle got the Fuzzy Tauntaun. I was excited about that because I was curious about the mouth numbing foam. Covid times but its ok to share drinks with family right?!
The fuzzy tauntaun is not something I would ever order. The foam is not the numbing I was expecting. The way I can describe it is its like that minty listerine feeling, almost that tingly feeling but makes your mouth super watery at the same time. That’s a 0 out of 10 from me.
While everyone was finishing their drinks we decided it would be best to mobile order some lunch as well as some blue milks. Kiss was the kindest and told Brittany and I that he would buy our blue milks since we didn’t get a second drink in the cantina. He told Brittany it was her wedding gift from him. Kiss also told Danielle that if she wanted a blue milk that she needed to order it because he didn’t think she needed more alcohol.
We paid our bill and then headed over to the milk stand. Kylo was out…and it was a little bit awkward without them walking around. There was no talking, just music playing in the background while they stood in the same spot just staring down the crowd.
When we got to the Milk Stand Danielle forgot that Kiss told her he was not getting her one and got mad. So she ordered one for herself.
The mood then drastically changed when Alish questioned why she got a different shaped cup. That comment worsened her mood very quickly, she ordered a plain blue milk and not one with rum like everyone else. We all tried telling her that she didn’t need the rum, that it was fine…save the money. That was not what she wanted to hear and told us she was an adult and could choose the alcoholic version if she wanted to. I was over the whole situation and just wanted to get a picture with my blue milk because I am a basic disney girl. So to make everyone be quiet about it, I traded my blue milk with Danielle’s and walked away from the situation.
My food was ready for pickup, so we headed over to Ronto Roasters to pick up my wrap and then we ran to go see Rey.
Danielle had her reservation to build her lightsaber and asked if I wanted to go with her. I told her no because I wanted to eat and meet back up with our family. I guess it was another thing she didn’t want to hear because she told me if I didn’t go then I couldn’t take pictures with it.
I still opted with my choice and went to pizza rizzo. Walking in there I instantly wish I could eat more because it smelled so good. But I had my wrap that I was dying to try. This wrap is HIGHLY talked about and I needed to see if it was worth the hype (because we all know most hyped up things are not all that worth it)
HOWEVER the ronto wrap gets a 10 out of 10 from me. Loved it
During lunch I called my mother to see what their plan was. They just finished eating and were leaving the lighting mcqueen show. The plain was to meet up at Runaway railway and wait in the forever long line together.
We met up at the theater and the line was long and confusing. It weaved all over in not a normal way. Then to top it off the sun was out to play. Alish ran to starbucks to get a venti water to share. The only thing getting me through the outside line was the cutest child behind us. While she had a hard time keeping her 6 part distance (because she was a toddler) her mother asked her if she was choosing to be with another family because if so we wouldn't want her. While we were almost inside Danielle finished her Lightsaber making and jumped in line with us.
And before we could go in we had to get ride of the drink, leaving Alish to water the plants so she could put the cold water in her water bottle.
The queue was for sure playing main street electrical parade music.
The sad part was no pre show…so what I believe normally happens is that the screen explodes and you enter the cartoon world. Instead you just have to catch on, or not even know that happens. Because I asked Brittany if that happened her first time on it and she didn’t even realize that was a thing.
Runaway Railway…I wish I could love you but The Great Movie Ride was still better in my opinion. To start I’m not overly thrilled with the new cartoon itself, so when they announced that this attraction was based around them I knew it wasn’t going to be a favorite. I’m however excited to see more trackless rides coming to the parks, I can now stop obsessing over Pooh in Tokyo (however probably never will because that ride is great) Brittany said that there is so much space, that its based on cartoons and is all flat and screens. I 100% agree, there felt like a lot of wasted space. But another plus is the smells…it smells even better than ET. And overall the best section is Daisy and the dancing room.
We headed out of the cartoon world and headed to Gma’s favorite ride and one she requested to go on. Welcome to the Twilight Zone!
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xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
Reunited With the Famous Mountain Melt
Since Gma isn’t a fan of the electric scooter and trying to scoot around the crowds, she tends to stop when someone comes 10 feet near here. This gave me the opportunity to run to the Pandora store, someone back home wanted me to see if they had any star wars charms for a christmas gift. After talking to the lovely CMs they sadly said no. But at least I tried.
My family was just passing the store when I left and we were off to ToT. The nice thing was the rider switch pass because we were the only ones going through the FP line. Oh how I truly miss the FP line. (The biggest struggle was having to wait in normal lines, I have became such a disney snob that waiting in the actual line is not all that fun)
Now before this trip I have to do some research when it came to getting Gma on this ride. This has always been one of her top favorites and I was unsure if we could get her on. After a bit of searching the web I learned that it was possible and it seemed like it was going to be more complex then the other rides we got her on. However it ended up being the easiest one of the whole trip.
With that being said, there was no pre show like all the other attractions and we just kept the line moving. Then an elevator with no row in front of you to block you in the photo…thats a dream!
After our trip to the twilight zone, Pa found a shirt he wanted in the gift shop since as he would say he was in need of a new ToT shirt. The rest of us waiting outside and then decided to call it a day at studios.
Before we could leave the park Brittany had to set Pa up with the live streaming of the Bills game. Happy football sunday! My father loves his Buffalo Bills and didn’t want to come to the park just for that reason, because it was game day and he didn’t want to miss it. Brittany is also a die hard fan and since moving to FL she had to find someone who streams the games live since she doesn’t have the luxury to watch it on TV every week. So the two of them got set up for kick off and we all headed back to the Skyliner to head back to the resort.
Once we got back to the Riviera Pa asked me why I couldn't be more like Brittany, she was able to talk more game bills…were I will watch the games with him every weekend and give my comical spin on my commentary. But what I will also do is cheer for my favorite Beasly.
Since its game day and we weren’t in a park, Brittany asked me prior if I wanted a mountain melt. Any chance I get for her to offer Ale House, I take it. Here’s to those poor DCP days when a mountain melt was delicious and the Ale House was the place to be.
The rents decided not to go and stay back to watch the game in the room. So we got it set up to the big screen thanks to the new fancy TVs and try to finish all the seltzers because we had so many left and it was out last night at the riviera.
We didn’t stay long because we had to meet up with Joe and Brittany’s Mom. So Kiss went with Alish and I went with Brittany. Like always Brittany forgot where she parked and realized it was not the parking lot me we were in. So we had to RUN to the other parking lot because Alish and Kiss already left. And as Brittany would say “We will not be telling your sister about this!”
On the drive over to Ale House Brittany informed me that her mother was so happy and wouldn’t stop talking about me from the other night. That I was a great friend and that she needed to keep me in her life. After 10 years I feel like I’m not going anywhere.
We managed not to be so behind to Ale house…the mountain melt was calling my name!
Now in reality we weren’t here for mountain melts. Brittany’s whole plan was to come and watch the Bills game. However Joe loves the Branco’s so its a perfect spot for them to be able to watch both the games at the same time while eating great food.
So while the two of them watched there games I took the time to talk to my second mom about our eventful day. She was shocked about how rough it turned out to be. But also how much she enjoyed her time with my family…I’m sorry you weren’t embarrassed with how crazy it gets when you put us all in a room? I was shocked. I also told her how she can join my family on the tragical express tomorrow if she wanted. She had the same flight home as them and Brittany was taking her to the airport. I suggested she just take the bus with my family since they had 7 seats with our reservation but only 3 were actually leaving, that would save her gas and free transportation. She said she would let us know.
Heres to the most beautiful creation, my three favorite food groups, fries, cheese and chicken fingers.
As we were finishing up we ordered meals for those back at the resort. So once those were ready we peaced out leaving Brittany and her fam to finish watching the game. When we left the game was ok, we were doing good but that can always change. So we paid our bill and headed out.
Today was my lucky day because Alish said should we go to twistee treat?! And that right there is always a yes. Another favorite off property place. Lucky for us there is one right down the street from Ale House and this one had a drive thru. This one also has Blue Goo, so clearly that is what I needed because its my favorite!
With a happy belly we headed back to Riviera to catch the last part of the game….GO BILLS!
Since Gma isn’t a fan of the electric scooter and trying to scoot around the crowds, she tends to stop when someone comes 10 feet near here. This gave me the opportunity to run to the Pandora store, someone back home wanted me to see if they had any star wars charms for a christmas gift. After talking to the lovely CMs they sadly said no. But at least I tried.
My family was just passing the store when I left and we were off to ToT. The nice thing was the rider switch pass because we were the only ones going through the FP line. Oh how I truly miss the FP line. (The biggest struggle was having to wait in normal lines, I have became such a disney snob that waiting in the actual line is not all that fun)
Now before this trip I have to do some research when it came to getting Gma on this ride. This has always been one of her top favorites and I was unsure if we could get her on. After a bit of searching the web I learned that it was possible and it seemed like it was going to be more complex then the other rides we got her on. However it ended up being the easiest one of the whole trip.
With that being said, there was no pre show like all the other attractions and we just kept the line moving. Then an elevator with no row in front of you to block you in the photo…thats a dream!
After our trip to the twilight zone, Pa found a shirt he wanted in the gift shop since as he would say he was in need of a new ToT shirt. The rest of us waiting outside and then decided to call it a day at studios.
Before we could leave the park Brittany had to set Pa up with the live streaming of the Bills game. Happy football sunday! My father loves his Buffalo Bills and didn’t want to come to the park just for that reason, because it was game day and he didn’t want to miss it. Brittany is also a die hard fan and since moving to FL she had to find someone who streams the games live since she doesn’t have the luxury to watch it on TV every week. So the two of them got set up for kick off and we all headed back to the Skyliner to head back to the resort.
Once we got back to the Riviera Pa asked me why I couldn't be more like Brittany, she was able to talk more game bills…were I will watch the games with him every weekend and give my comical spin on my commentary. But what I will also do is cheer for my favorite Beasly.
Since its game day and we weren’t in a park, Brittany asked me prior if I wanted a mountain melt. Any chance I get for her to offer Ale House, I take it. Here’s to those poor DCP days when a mountain melt was delicious and the Ale House was the place to be.
The rents decided not to go and stay back to watch the game in the room. So we got it set up to the big screen thanks to the new fancy TVs and try to finish all the seltzers because we had so many left and it was out last night at the riviera.
We didn’t stay long because we had to meet up with Joe and Brittany’s Mom. So Kiss went with Alish and I went with Brittany. Like always Brittany forgot where she parked and realized it was not the parking lot me we were in. So we had to RUN to the other parking lot because Alish and Kiss already left. And as Brittany would say “We will not be telling your sister about this!”
On the drive over to Ale House Brittany informed me that her mother was so happy and wouldn’t stop talking about me from the other night. That I was a great friend and that she needed to keep me in her life. After 10 years I feel like I’m not going anywhere.
We managed not to be so behind to Ale house…the mountain melt was calling my name!
Now in reality we weren’t here for mountain melts. Brittany’s whole plan was to come and watch the Bills game. However Joe loves the Branco’s so its a perfect spot for them to be able to watch both the games at the same time while eating great food.
So while the two of them watched there games I took the time to talk to my second mom about our eventful day. She was shocked about how rough it turned out to be. But also how much she enjoyed her time with my family…I’m sorry you weren’t embarrassed with how crazy it gets when you put us all in a room? I was shocked. I also told her how she can join my family on the tragical express tomorrow if she wanted. She had the same flight home as them and Brittany was taking her to the airport. I suggested she just take the bus with my family since they had 7 seats with our reservation but only 3 were actually leaving, that would save her gas and free transportation. She said she would let us know.
Heres to the most beautiful creation, my three favorite food groups, fries, cheese and chicken fingers.
As we were finishing up we ordered meals for those back at the resort. So once those were ready we peaced out leaving Brittany and her fam to finish watching the game. When we left the game was ok, we were doing good but that can always change. So we paid our bill and headed out.
Today was my lucky day because Alish said should we go to twistee treat?! And that right there is always a yes. Another favorite off property place. Lucky for us there is one right down the street from Ale House and this one had a drive thru. This one also has Blue Goo, so clearly that is what I needed because its my favorite!
With a happy belly we headed back to Riviera to catch the last part of the game….GO BILLS!
xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
Last Night At The Riviera
When we got back to the room the game was still going on and we were still going strong! Everyone was loving the food they got as they would say “one of the best things they ate on the trip” I think they forgot that about the mashed potatoes at Topolinos.
What it’s like being a Bills Fan…
There was 2 minutes left, Bills were winning….Gma goes “Not much can happen in two minutes” In the last 11 seconds of the game we lost. We blame Gma for jinxing them. I texted Brittany right away because I was seeing the fits being thrown here and was wondering how her mood has changed. She said she stormed out of Ale House and left Joe behind to watch his game…. love that.
Since it was our last night and I had yet to check out the pool we decided to make a trip down there for a late night swim. We opted for the “quiet” pool mostly because it was the first one. But before we found a spot to claim as our own we headed over to the main pool too see it. There were a bunch of people so the quiet pool was the better option overall because there was no one there.
It was a tad bit chilly and that was not a mood for me. However I jumped in, swam a lap and crossed it off the list of things that needed to be accomplished. Then I headed straight to the hot tub.
Within 10 minutes the sky opened and it started drizzling. We knew it wouldn't just be a nice light rain so we decided to dry off and head for shelter. As we were leaving a group of kids came running in with their family ready to have a fun time swimming in the rain. If only it wasn’t so cold.
By the time we got back to the room it was a monsoon outside, but for florida thats nothing new. And with just some rain, I got a text that the weather back home was worse with major power outages.
It was an early night. We packed up the room so we didn’t have to worry about that in the morning and then made a game plan for tomorrow. We didn’t have plans to go to Epcot however Alish had main gates she was never going to use so we planned to go for an hour or so to make Kiss happy.
Tomorrow was going to be a busy day, Epcot in the morning, move over to the contemporary and get ourselves tatted up!
continue to next post
When we got back to the room the game was still going on and we were still going strong! Everyone was loving the food they got as they would say “one of the best things they ate on the trip” I think they forgot that about the mashed potatoes at Topolinos.
What it’s like being a Bills Fan…
There was 2 minutes left, Bills were winning….Gma goes “Not much can happen in two minutes” In the last 11 seconds of the game we lost. We blame Gma for jinxing them. I texted Brittany right away because I was seeing the fits being thrown here and was wondering how her mood has changed. She said she stormed out of Ale House and left Joe behind to watch his game…. love that.
Since it was our last night and I had yet to check out the pool we decided to make a trip down there for a late night swim. We opted for the “quiet” pool mostly because it was the first one. But before we found a spot to claim as our own we headed over to the main pool too see it. There were a bunch of people so the quiet pool was the better option overall because there was no one there.
It was a tad bit chilly and that was not a mood for me. However I jumped in, swam a lap and crossed it off the list of things that needed to be accomplished. Then I headed straight to the hot tub.
Within 10 minutes the sky opened and it started drizzling. We knew it wouldn't just be a nice light rain so we decided to dry off and head for shelter. As we were leaving a group of kids came running in with their family ready to have a fun time swimming in the rain. If only it wasn’t so cold.
By the time we got back to the room it was a monsoon outside, but for florida thats nothing new. And with just some rain, I got a text that the weather back home was worse with major power outages.
It was an early night. We packed up the room so we didn’t have to worry about that in the morning and then made a game plan for tomorrow. We didn’t have plans to go to Epcot however Alish had main gates she was never going to use so we planned to go for an hour or so to make Kiss happy.
Tomorrow was going to be a busy day, Epcot in the morning, move over to the contemporary and get ourselves tatted up!
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Mich123
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2009
Bills fan here! Completely understand the pain and suffering. Enjoying your report. I’ve always wondered about Universal and appreciated your comparison. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to sacrifice Disney time to go. We went to Universal CA for Harry Potter but all the 3D rides made us sick.
xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
YAY! GO BILLS! It was a great season while it lasted.
I was so set on never needing to go to Universal, but when I couldn't get an AP this trip I was willing to get peer pressured into finally going. Its not a park I need to go every trip. Its ok but theres nothing special there for me like Disney.
xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
Run The Showcase
It was our last morning waking up at the Riviera, that's sad because I knew I wouldn't be here in a long while. The Rents and Gma were headed home today, so we backed up all our belongings and got ready to leave behind the beautiful two bedroom villa.
Us kids were moving over to the Contemporary for the rest of our stay. So we decided to just put our suitcases in storage until we were ready to move over there and from there we would use Uber Alish to transfer our luggage for us.
The Walt wall is my favorite at this resort
Our plan for this morning, get to Epcot when it opens and stay for an hour or two. Epcot was not on our list of parks to go to this trip. I couldn’t justify spending $100 for a park that's basically all walls. Plus I knew if we went that I would be spending more money on F&W. Kiss was bummed but understood. However Alish had some CM main gate passes so she gave them to Kiss and I. And Danielle was still living off her AP. So I free 2 hours in Epcot was not something I was going to pass up.
We headed to the Skyliner and unlike the studios trip, Epcot’s line was a little bit much for our liking. Now the problem with the Epcot line from this resort is that its the stop after the main hub at CBR. So with everyone from the other resorts on the Skyliner going to Epcot will pass through the Riviera stop not getting off. Meaning we had to wait for an empty car which was a long process since everyone wanted to go to Epcot. The family behind us in line decided to walk back to CBR to get on there instead of waiting. Not sure if that was faster or not.
The wait is worth it though and I love this new form of transportation!
On our ride over to Epcot I could see Ratatouille, here's to a ride that was suppose to be open. I’m lucky to say that I’ve already experienced this attraction in Paris so I can wait to go on it again. However if they were to bring over the remy restaurant I would want to be eating there right this second.
With the line we waited in for the skyliner I was expecting the quiet showcase entrance to not be so dead anymore. Surprisingly it was still quiet and few people were around.
I will say this all the time now… I love the new bag check. Its simple…efficient…no more waiting in lines for someone to pull out everything in your bag.
Hello Epcot I’m ready for you to take all my money!
With talks of coming to Epcot I made sure to use my favorite app Festival of food to figure out which stands would take my money. I found this app last F&W and it has been a lifesaver. It lists by stand in order, with every food and drink they sell with cost, picture and reviews. Then if you want to try something you add it to your list and then its all in order of which way you walk the showcase. The great thing is that it changes for each festival of epcot so its not just for F&W.
Its basically the little booklet but with pictures and on your phone.
If you ask Kiss the main reason he comes to Epcot…it probably isn’t for the pub but I always believe its for the pub. Him and Danielle ran in and alish and I waited outside. I can only imagine how weird it was inside, I’m so used to it being a mad house packed with people and that can’t be a thing anymore.
When they came out we headed on our way. We had things to do, so it was a very quick paced morning. Next stop, Hawaii! I had the pineapple beer on my list, as did Kiss so we ended up splitting it since he was still trying to finish his first drink.
F&W during a pandemic…would not recommend. I’m use to drinking my drink in hand and finishing it by the next stop. Now you have to find a spot to plop yourself before you can take off your mask.
My family went MIA, and when I went in search of finding them Anna and Elsa were parting the crowd coming through the showcase for their little parade. I found my family at a near by table. Alish went to a different stand and got the key lime coconut beer…that was where it was at! It was also on my list and while the pineapple from Hawaii was good I wish I went with the coconut.
Alish was upset that she only got the little cup because she was unsure if she would like it. So now we know for next year
Although the plan was to eat and drink around the world, Alish needed to go up to guest relations to see if they would hold a package. Her friend works at Topolino’s and wanted alish to pick up the stuffed animals from the giftshop for her. Apparently she was headed to Epcot later that day so she was just going to pick them up at Guest relations.
THE WALLS! It’s one thing to see the construction in pictures, its different to actual be effected by them. The easy straight line to Guests relations was not a thing anymore. It was now walk over to Test track, passed the new guardians ride, walk backstage make a big loop passed the ball and make it to guest relations. It was a mess and the sun was making it even more that much fun.
We walked all that way just for them to tell us sorry we can’t do that anymore…but you can rent a locker. With that answer we headed back to the long journey that led us back to where we were. It was hot, I was melting, and we were all ready to drink. To Mexico it was! I thought it would be a fun idea to get a F&W margarita, what everyone always tells me “try something different” Well I did and I regretted it. So I got the spicy mango one at the outside booth, everyone else wanted to go inside to get one. Since I couldn’t walk and drink I tried my hardest not to spill any of the filled to the brim drink….I ended up with a sticky hand once we had to tackle those stairs. At the same stand Kiss got some kind of food…it was good! I have no clue what it was though
The tequila bar now uses there tables to create a maze line. RIP to the times we could sit down and get some chips to go with our margaritas. They all ordered their drinks and the bar tender judged me so hard for getting one outside and not from him. Bro I regretted it the moment we walked in, what I would do for my POG margarita. This is prime example of why I don’t try new things.
While Mexico was a bit of a bust for me, I was ready to get to Norway.
The bakery just announced that they were open everyday now and not just the weekends. I could cry, this trip I thought I would not be able to get a school bread but today was my lucky day!
EPCOT IS FAKE! I miss the sweet Norwegians giving me their most sacred snack and telling me stories about moose. Instead we just have you basic CMs…I appreciate you, its just not the same experience and it makes me sad.
Then to top it off, Olaf now is found on school bread and I’m not sure how I feel about that…
However I have finally got someone else to fall in love with this delicious treat! Kiss was always “I don’t like coconut” but then this trip he finally said I’m going to get one (because I don’t like to share…) He scarfed it down and said he could get one of these every trip. My job here is done.
continue to next post
It was our last morning waking up at the Riviera, that's sad because I knew I wouldn't be here in a long while. The Rents and Gma were headed home today, so we backed up all our belongings and got ready to leave behind the beautiful two bedroom villa.
Us kids were moving over to the Contemporary for the rest of our stay. So we decided to just put our suitcases in storage until we were ready to move over there and from there we would use Uber Alish to transfer our luggage for us.
The Walt wall is my favorite at this resort
Our plan for this morning, get to Epcot when it opens and stay for an hour or two. Epcot was not on our list of parks to go to this trip. I couldn’t justify spending $100 for a park that's basically all walls. Plus I knew if we went that I would be spending more money on F&W. Kiss was bummed but understood. However Alish had some CM main gate passes so she gave them to Kiss and I. And Danielle was still living off her AP. So I free 2 hours in Epcot was not something I was going to pass up.
We headed to the Skyliner and unlike the studios trip, Epcot’s line was a little bit much for our liking. Now the problem with the Epcot line from this resort is that its the stop after the main hub at CBR. So with everyone from the other resorts on the Skyliner going to Epcot will pass through the Riviera stop not getting off. Meaning we had to wait for an empty car which was a long process since everyone wanted to go to Epcot. The family behind us in line decided to walk back to CBR to get on there instead of waiting. Not sure if that was faster or not.
The wait is worth it though and I love this new form of transportation!
On our ride over to Epcot I could see Ratatouille, here's to a ride that was suppose to be open. I’m lucky to say that I’ve already experienced this attraction in Paris so I can wait to go on it again. However if they were to bring over the remy restaurant I would want to be eating there right this second.
With the line we waited in for the skyliner I was expecting the quiet showcase entrance to not be so dead anymore. Surprisingly it was still quiet and few people were around.
I will say this all the time now… I love the new bag check. Its simple…efficient…no more waiting in lines for someone to pull out everything in your bag.
Hello Epcot I’m ready for you to take all my money!
With talks of coming to Epcot I made sure to use my favorite app Festival of food to figure out which stands would take my money. I found this app last F&W and it has been a lifesaver. It lists by stand in order, with every food and drink they sell with cost, picture and reviews. Then if you want to try something you add it to your list and then its all in order of which way you walk the showcase. The great thing is that it changes for each festival of epcot so its not just for F&W.
Its basically the little booklet but with pictures and on your phone.
If you ask Kiss the main reason he comes to Epcot…it probably isn’t for the pub but I always believe its for the pub. Him and Danielle ran in and alish and I waited outside. I can only imagine how weird it was inside, I’m so used to it being a mad house packed with people and that can’t be a thing anymore.
When they came out we headed on our way. We had things to do, so it was a very quick paced morning. Next stop, Hawaii! I had the pineapple beer on my list, as did Kiss so we ended up splitting it since he was still trying to finish his first drink.
F&W during a pandemic…would not recommend. I’m use to drinking my drink in hand and finishing it by the next stop. Now you have to find a spot to plop yourself before you can take off your mask.
My family went MIA, and when I went in search of finding them Anna and Elsa were parting the crowd coming through the showcase for their little parade. I found my family at a near by table. Alish went to a different stand and got the key lime coconut beer…that was where it was at! It was also on my list and while the pineapple from Hawaii was good I wish I went with the coconut.
Alish was upset that she only got the little cup because she was unsure if she would like it. So now we know for next year
Although the plan was to eat and drink around the world, Alish needed to go up to guest relations to see if they would hold a package. Her friend works at Topolino’s and wanted alish to pick up the stuffed animals from the giftshop for her. Apparently she was headed to Epcot later that day so she was just going to pick them up at Guest relations.
THE WALLS! It’s one thing to see the construction in pictures, its different to actual be effected by them. The easy straight line to Guests relations was not a thing anymore. It was now walk over to Test track, passed the new guardians ride, walk backstage make a big loop passed the ball and make it to guest relations. It was a mess and the sun was making it even more that much fun.
We walked all that way just for them to tell us sorry we can’t do that anymore…but you can rent a locker. With that answer we headed back to the long journey that led us back to where we were. It was hot, I was melting, and we were all ready to drink. To Mexico it was! I thought it would be a fun idea to get a F&W margarita, what everyone always tells me “try something different” Well I did and I regretted it. So I got the spicy mango one at the outside booth, everyone else wanted to go inside to get one. Since I couldn’t walk and drink I tried my hardest not to spill any of the filled to the brim drink….I ended up with a sticky hand once we had to tackle those stairs. At the same stand Kiss got some kind of food…it was good! I have no clue what it was though
The tequila bar now uses there tables to create a maze line. RIP to the times we could sit down and get some chips to go with our margaritas. They all ordered their drinks and the bar tender judged me so hard for getting one outside and not from him. Bro I regretted it the moment we walked in, what I would do for my POG margarita. This is prime example of why I don’t try new things.
While Mexico was a bit of a bust for me, I was ready to get to Norway.
The bakery just announced that they were open everyday now and not just the weekends. I could cry, this trip I thought I would not be able to get a school bread but today was my lucky day!
EPCOT IS FAKE! I miss the sweet Norwegians giving me their most sacred snack and telling me stories about moose. Instead we just have you basic CMs…I appreciate you, its just not the same experience and it makes me sad.
Then to top it off, Olaf now is found on school bread and I’m not sure how I feel about that…
However I have finally got someone else to fall in love with this delicious treat! Kiss was always “I don’t like coconut” but then this trip he finally said I’m going to get one (because I don’t like to share…) He scarfed it down and said he could get one of these every trip. My job here is done.
continue to next post
Last edited:
xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
Endless Summer Vibes
After Norway we made a quick stop over in Germany, where I grabbed two essentials…Grapefruit beer and there new special gingerbread cookie sandwich for the holiday season. Once I successfully got both of them we then headed over to Japan where everyone was interested in the cold Ramen.
At this point I went in search of a table and waited for everyone.
If only they sold this cookie year round. The cookies themselves were GREAT! I truthfully could have gone without the cream inside, it was super sugary and was too much for my liking.
Now with the ramen. I tried it last year at F&W and it wasn’t awful but it wasn’t something I needed again. This seemed to be what everyone else was thinking as well. Just nothing all that special.
The clock was ticking so we briskly walked the rest of the showcase until we got to the main pavilion in-between the UK and Canada.
There was a good amount of booths and live music. The best thing was getting out of the heat.
The mac and cheese booth got me…who’s surprised?! Not me. I ended up going with the buffalo mac and cheese and it was delicious. Again not something that is a MUST get but it definitely hit the spot. And because we were in a rush, I have no clue what anyone else got.
While we were getting ready to leave Alish got a message from our tattoo artist saying that she had a migraine and had to cancel out appointment. While we were completely bummed out I knew very well with my personal experience how migraines are. She also knew that I can out of town so rescheduling was tricky, since I only had tomorrow. She told us she would come in on her day off and give us a discount since she was canceling last minute. We gladly accepted and I figured out the game plan for tomorrow.
Even though we now had no reason to rush back to the resort. We still had no reason to stay at Epcot. So by 1:30 we hopped back on the skyliner and headed back to the Riviera. With only a few short hours left of hanging out here we decided it would be the best time to take some photos with the amazing mosaics.
We headed into the lobby where we found the fam waiting for the tragical express to come pick them up. We decided to hang out with them before they had to head to the bus stop. While we waited Alish’s friend Lisa came to the resort to pick up her plushies before she headed to Epcot.
Then we all headed outside to wait for their bus. It has been a joyous few days with the whole gang back together
The Tragical Express came for them and we said our goodbyes.
Us siblings all headed back inside the Riviera one last time
The sun was shining we had no plans so we decided to head to the pool for a bit.
We opted for the quiet pool again. This time however they had a CM working who was in charge of sanitizing the lounge chairs. She came up to us and asked that once we were done that we lay down the chairs all the way so she knew which ones needed to be cleaned.
For the first time ever kiss asked me to put up his hair so it wouldn't get wet! This is a first, I have always asked to braid his hair and he always says no. However today we went with your basic man bun
Hi I miss florida’s endless summer
The sun was going down and being blocked behind the building. So with that we decided to move yet again and this time we decided to catch some rays over on the sand beach area. These loungers are my favorite…would you find me hear in the summer time? absolutely not, it would get way to hot. However it was cooling down and I ended up falling asleep
The next thing I know I was being woke up by Brittany standing above me. Her mother decided she wanted to spend more time with her daughter so she made Brittany drive her to the airport instead of taking the ME. So because of that we told Brittany to just meet us at the Riviera once she was done and we could all move over to the Contemporary.
However before we did that we needed to go get our COVID test so we could get back into NY when we flew back home.
After Norway we made a quick stop over in Germany, where I grabbed two essentials…Grapefruit beer and there new special gingerbread cookie sandwich for the holiday season. Once I successfully got both of them we then headed over to Japan where everyone was interested in the cold Ramen.
At this point I went in search of a table and waited for everyone.
If only they sold this cookie year round. The cookies themselves were GREAT! I truthfully could have gone without the cream inside, it was super sugary and was too much for my liking.
Now with the ramen. I tried it last year at F&W and it wasn’t awful but it wasn’t something I needed again. This seemed to be what everyone else was thinking as well. Just nothing all that special.
The clock was ticking so we briskly walked the rest of the showcase until we got to the main pavilion in-between the UK and Canada.
There was a good amount of booths and live music. The best thing was getting out of the heat.
The mac and cheese booth got me…who’s surprised?! Not me. I ended up going with the buffalo mac and cheese and it was delicious. Again not something that is a MUST get but it definitely hit the spot. And because we were in a rush, I have no clue what anyone else got.
While we were getting ready to leave Alish got a message from our tattoo artist saying that she had a migraine and had to cancel out appointment. While we were completely bummed out I knew very well with my personal experience how migraines are. She also knew that I can out of town so rescheduling was tricky, since I only had tomorrow. She told us she would come in on her day off and give us a discount since she was canceling last minute. We gladly accepted and I figured out the game plan for tomorrow.
Even though we now had no reason to rush back to the resort. We still had no reason to stay at Epcot. So by 1:30 we hopped back on the skyliner and headed back to the Riviera. With only a few short hours left of hanging out here we decided it would be the best time to take some photos with the amazing mosaics.
We headed into the lobby where we found the fam waiting for the tragical express to come pick them up. We decided to hang out with them before they had to head to the bus stop. While we waited Alish’s friend Lisa came to the resort to pick up her plushies before she headed to Epcot.
Then we all headed outside to wait for their bus. It has been a joyous few days with the whole gang back together
The Tragical Express came for them and we said our goodbyes.
Us siblings all headed back inside the Riviera one last time
The sun was shining we had no plans so we decided to head to the pool for a bit.
We opted for the quiet pool again. This time however they had a CM working who was in charge of sanitizing the lounge chairs. She came up to us and asked that once we were done that we lay down the chairs all the way so she knew which ones needed to be cleaned.
For the first time ever kiss asked me to put up his hair so it wouldn't get wet! This is a first, I have always asked to braid his hair and he always says no. However today we went with your basic man bun
Hi I miss florida’s endless summer
The sun was going down and being blocked behind the building. So with that we decided to move yet again and this time we decided to catch some rays over on the sand beach area. These loungers are my favorite…would you find me hear in the summer time? absolutely not, it would get way to hot. However it was cooling down and I ended up falling asleep
The next thing I know I was being woke up by Brittany standing above me. Her mother decided she wanted to spend more time with her daughter so she made Brittany drive her to the airport instead of taking the ME. So because of that we told Brittany to just meet us at the Riviera once she was done and we could all move over to the Contemporary.
However before we did that we needed to go get our COVID test so we could get back into NY when we flew back home.
xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
Fireworks Over The Kingdom
With the pandemic the travel restrictions are always changing. When we booked this trip we were all looking at a 2 week quarantine when we got back. However a few weeks before our trip NY changed the rules and now it was get a negative covid test up to 3 days before flying into NY and get another 4 days after, or you can still do the 2 week quarantine. I never wanted to ever get tested but Disney trumped that fear and so we were off to get tested.
Trying to figure out where to get tested wasn’t that hard. At first Brittany said we could go to CVS drive thru and take the self swab. That was the first plan. Then I found out Disney has a free self swab rapid test on property. If you are in need of a test to get back home I highly recommend. However one thing to know…while it is on Disney property, you need to find your own transportation to it. This testing site was dedicated for CM but if Disney wanted the state funding for it, it needed to be open to the public. So lucky us we hopped in the car and made our way.
With my first time, I had no idea what to expect. I just was happy that it was a self swab. When we got in line there was a QR code to scan with your phone to fill out all your information before it was your turn which would then give you a code. Since we were all from the same family we all went to the same window, they scanned our code and gave us our stick to shove up our nose.
Brittany’s friend works in the Covid Unit back home so Brittany was “coaching” me through the swabbing process…AKA make sure you really get it up there. Oh boy did I do that…to the point where I had a dull headache for a good amount of time afterwards.
On the way back to the Riviera Brittany asked how my first test was, it wasn’t as awful as I thought but it wasn’t enjoyable. When we got back to the Riviera we headed inside and got our bags from storage. As we waited we all got our test results back via email. I don’t know why I got so nervous but I did. Luckily I was negative and Brittany said I better not have covid because she needs me in her life for 50 plus more years.
We got our bags and we loaded up Brittany and Alish’s car. I headed over to the contemporary with Brittany because we just needed that chatty chat time. When we were about to pull into the contemporary Joe called Brittany just to see what we were up to. The conversation was short but when she hung up she goes “he calls me everyday when he leaves work” precious.
The contemporary parking lot was under some major construction so we had to go the long way just to get into the building. As we were walking up Brittany pointed up and said theres your room…top floor all the way in the corner. Turns out she was right without even knowing.
The room itself was very spacious. Coming from a huge 2 bedroom it had its flaws but the space itself was great
It didn’t take long to make ourselves at home.
We didn’t settle in to long before we made our way out for the night. It was still somewhat early and we had plans to go to Korean BBQ for dinner. The best thing about having Alish and Brittany in FL is that we have the option to venture off Disney property for different food options. Kiss and Alish decided to go to Izziban so thats where we went.
Now the downfall to FL is it truly takes forever to get somewhere, I once again went with Brittany and we had no clue where we were going. Alish sent us the address we plugged in the address but decided to follow her. Turns out leaving the contemporary we both thought we were following her but it was not her at all. We somehow managed to get there and also somehow managed to beat them which was weird because they left before us and we never saw them.
As we tried to find parking the cobble stone road turned into a sketchy work zone and we had no clue where we were going. We had to back track and finally caught up with my family.
Welcome to all you can eat Korean BBQ where you cook it yourself. Along with all the different meats, you can also order unlimited sushi rolls, soup, gyoza, spring rolls, ect.
We basically ordered one of everything. The downfall was having to wait for all the meat to cook. These things are never really my favorite, they seem like a good idea but very seldom are. And it always seems as though I’m with Brittany when we choose options like this. Luckily we have Kiss, who is a cook at a restaurant, to prepare all our food tonight
We cooked and ate for forever. During this time Brittany swore she never knew my fake middle name was Wendy. AKA Danielle was obsessed with Peter Pan growing up and wanted me to be named Wendy, all my parents could give her was a second “fake” middle name. And while Brittany never knew this, she did go on a say “I did know you were suppose to be a Miranda and not Samantha” and she’s not wrong there.
We ended up leaving at 9. It was a long dinner we had. Brittany was originally going to come back to the contemporary but glad she drove to dinner because no one expected it to last that long. So we all parted ways and would meet back up tomorrow night when she was done at work.
The trouble we came too with eating off property is the way we got back onto property. Normally coming back from behind magic kingdom to the contemporary is easy. But tonight they were having special firework testing so all roads were closed, and they were not so good on detouring people. To the point where I knew…and Alish knew we were going to a dead end. So like all the other 5 cars we had to make the turn around.
We managed to get a peek of the sad Mark twain riverboat and a elephant just chilling
Then we had to backtrack and go all the way around to the Grand floridan and make the circle around back to Contemporary.
I’m going to start off by saying that we lucked out this trip. We decided to do the 2 nights at contemporary because it was still on my list of places to stay and was available with the CM discount. The lucky part was that the random night they were testing fireworks was a night we were staying there. And with a fireworkless Disney it was a treat.
It was clear a lot of people were missing fireworks because the outside stairs were PACKED with people at 9pm. They had 10-12 blocked off for testing and we finally went out in the hallway once we heard them. With testing it wasn’t constant fireworks, it was probably every 5-10 minutes one would go off. We didn’t even hear fireworks starting to go off until closer to 11.
We took the down time to entertain ourselves. The hallway was quiet, no one was around and we this was left out in front of our door….
Seeing fireworks was magical as cheesy as it sounds. Disney without fireworks is strange. I’m not one who has to see the nighttime shows every night I’m at a park, but it was strange being there and them not being an option. There was no change in background music, there was no rush before for the fireworks crowds dispersed. Its strange, so even just seeing a few fireworks go off over the kingdom brought back a little something Disney is missing at the moment.
We weren’t like the crazy people out on the stairs. We waited around to see a few fireworks and then decided to call it a night.
With the pandemic the travel restrictions are always changing. When we booked this trip we were all looking at a 2 week quarantine when we got back. However a few weeks before our trip NY changed the rules and now it was get a negative covid test up to 3 days before flying into NY and get another 4 days after, or you can still do the 2 week quarantine. I never wanted to ever get tested but Disney trumped that fear and so we were off to get tested.
Trying to figure out where to get tested wasn’t that hard. At first Brittany said we could go to CVS drive thru and take the self swab. That was the first plan. Then I found out Disney has a free self swab rapid test on property. If you are in need of a test to get back home I highly recommend. However one thing to know…while it is on Disney property, you need to find your own transportation to it. This testing site was dedicated for CM but if Disney wanted the state funding for it, it needed to be open to the public. So lucky us we hopped in the car and made our way.
With my first time, I had no idea what to expect. I just was happy that it was a self swab. When we got in line there was a QR code to scan with your phone to fill out all your information before it was your turn which would then give you a code. Since we were all from the same family we all went to the same window, they scanned our code and gave us our stick to shove up our nose.
Brittany’s friend works in the Covid Unit back home so Brittany was “coaching” me through the swabbing process…AKA make sure you really get it up there. Oh boy did I do that…to the point where I had a dull headache for a good amount of time afterwards.
On the way back to the Riviera Brittany asked how my first test was, it wasn’t as awful as I thought but it wasn’t enjoyable. When we got back to the Riviera we headed inside and got our bags from storage. As we waited we all got our test results back via email. I don’t know why I got so nervous but I did. Luckily I was negative and Brittany said I better not have covid because she needs me in her life for 50 plus more years.
We got our bags and we loaded up Brittany and Alish’s car. I headed over to the contemporary with Brittany because we just needed that chatty chat time. When we were about to pull into the contemporary Joe called Brittany just to see what we were up to. The conversation was short but when she hung up she goes “he calls me everyday when he leaves work” precious.
The contemporary parking lot was under some major construction so we had to go the long way just to get into the building. As we were walking up Brittany pointed up and said theres your room…top floor all the way in the corner. Turns out she was right without even knowing.
The room itself was very spacious. Coming from a huge 2 bedroom it had its flaws but the space itself was great
It didn’t take long to make ourselves at home.
We didn’t settle in to long before we made our way out for the night. It was still somewhat early and we had plans to go to Korean BBQ for dinner. The best thing about having Alish and Brittany in FL is that we have the option to venture off Disney property for different food options. Kiss and Alish decided to go to Izziban so thats where we went.
Now the downfall to FL is it truly takes forever to get somewhere, I once again went with Brittany and we had no clue where we were going. Alish sent us the address we plugged in the address but decided to follow her. Turns out leaving the contemporary we both thought we were following her but it was not her at all. We somehow managed to get there and also somehow managed to beat them which was weird because they left before us and we never saw them.
As we tried to find parking the cobble stone road turned into a sketchy work zone and we had no clue where we were going. We had to back track and finally caught up with my family.
Welcome to all you can eat Korean BBQ where you cook it yourself. Along with all the different meats, you can also order unlimited sushi rolls, soup, gyoza, spring rolls, ect.
We basically ordered one of everything. The downfall was having to wait for all the meat to cook. These things are never really my favorite, they seem like a good idea but very seldom are. And it always seems as though I’m with Brittany when we choose options like this. Luckily we have Kiss, who is a cook at a restaurant, to prepare all our food tonight
We cooked and ate for forever. During this time Brittany swore she never knew my fake middle name was Wendy. AKA Danielle was obsessed with Peter Pan growing up and wanted me to be named Wendy, all my parents could give her was a second “fake” middle name. And while Brittany never knew this, she did go on a say “I did know you were suppose to be a Miranda and not Samantha” and she’s not wrong there.
We ended up leaving at 9. It was a long dinner we had. Brittany was originally going to come back to the contemporary but glad she drove to dinner because no one expected it to last that long. So we all parted ways and would meet back up tomorrow night when she was done at work.
The trouble we came too with eating off property is the way we got back onto property. Normally coming back from behind magic kingdom to the contemporary is easy. But tonight they were having special firework testing so all roads were closed, and they were not so good on detouring people. To the point where I knew…and Alish knew we were going to a dead end. So like all the other 5 cars we had to make the turn around.
We managed to get a peek of the sad Mark twain riverboat and a elephant just chilling
Then we had to backtrack and go all the way around to the Grand floridan and make the circle around back to Contemporary.
I’m going to start off by saying that we lucked out this trip. We decided to do the 2 nights at contemporary because it was still on my list of places to stay and was available with the CM discount. The lucky part was that the random night they were testing fireworks was a night we were staying there. And with a fireworkless Disney it was a treat.
It was clear a lot of people were missing fireworks because the outside stairs were PACKED with people at 9pm. They had 10-12 blocked off for testing and we finally went out in the hallway once we heard them. With testing it wasn’t constant fireworks, it was probably every 5-10 minutes one would go off. We didn’t even hear fireworks starting to go off until closer to 11.
We took the down time to entertain ourselves. The hallway was quiet, no one was around and we this was left out in front of our door….
Seeing fireworks was magical as cheesy as it sounds. Disney without fireworks is strange. I’m not one who has to see the nighttime shows every night I’m at a park, but it was strange being there and them not being an option. There was no change in background music, there was no rush before for the fireworks crowds dispersed. Its strange, so even just seeing a few fireworks go off over the kingdom brought back a little something Disney is missing at the moment.
We weren’t like the crazy people out on the stairs. We waited around to see a few fireworks and then decided to call it a night.
xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
Magic Kingdom...FINALLY!
It was our last full day in Disney and we were finally getting over to the Magic Kingdom. The perk of the contemporary was being able to just walk right over, this was the perk that I was looking forward to the most. No waiting in line for a bus, not having to wake up super early to catch said bus. We could sleep in longer and go over whenever we please.
The idea was a great idea until Danielle decided to have all her million of alarms go off all morning. So with that my plan to sleep in was washed down the drain as I laid there wide awake at 7am. While everyone was sleeping I decided to just get up and moving.
It was a brisk 60 degree morning which was a big change from the past mornings. But nothing beats a chilly morning and having to wear a sweatshirt to the park. Plus even though it was a brisk morning it was blue skies and sunshine.
Everyone got up and moving and we made the nice walk over to the kingdom. Turns out I love the contemporary just for this reason. As we headed over Alish informed us that if we wanted to come back tomorrow that she could get us in on her break. I would never say no to a free day at a park.
We arrived a bit early before 9am however with not trying to draw crowds they were already letting people in. Christmas was alive and well on Main Street
Our first stop…like any other morning trip to MK was head straight to tomorrowland for Space mountain. I’m not all to sure where everyone else went off running because tomorrowland was dead.
Space mountain was a nice walk on and theres not better way to start your morning.
While we could have easily walked right back on we decided to hit up more attractions before the crowds were in full effect. Alish asked to see the wait for mine train so thats where we headed next. We ended up finding out where everyone went to. The line was probably shorter than it seemed but when it was already out by teacups it scared us off. So instead we headed through fantasyland and over to Thunder.
Here’s to one of the saddest sights ever to be seen in Disney
And while the bears weren’t up and singing, it was only right to at least get a photo with my country bear sweatshirt that I was wearing.
The wait for Splash was nonexistent but it was still a little bit chilly so we decided to wait on that.
A 5 minute wait for Thunder was also a nice thing to see. we Jumped in line and once again we were walking right on. As we walked through the queue I took this time to see if there were any reservations available for CMs tomorrow for MK. There was no such luck, so today we needed to get everything accomplished.
After thunder we headed to my only request for the day, Jingle Cruise.
Frontier land looked an awful lot like Tomorrowland, empty
The Jingle Cruise is one of my favorite things when the holiday comes around. Its your cheesy jokes but with that christmas twist, I don’t know why anyone would hate it. And it seemed like everyone wanted some christmas puns because the line looked very long. Once again the lines may look scary but thats because of the 6 feet apart from every direction and if we know anything about the jungle cruise line, its that they love to pack you in like sardines.
Kiss reminded me that he had yet to experience the Jingle cruise. We tried to go on it our last December trip, however we were those packed sardines that were trapped in the middle of the line and decided to jump ship.
So today was the make up day for that. My favorite thing about the jingle cruise is all the details they change over just for this overlay.
After about a 20 minute wait we hopped aboard Noel Nellie and unlike passed times our boat was not as full and was sectioned off by plexiglass.
Then we were off…ready to Jungle all the way
It was our last full day in Disney and we were finally getting over to the Magic Kingdom. The perk of the contemporary was being able to just walk right over, this was the perk that I was looking forward to the most. No waiting in line for a bus, not having to wake up super early to catch said bus. We could sleep in longer and go over whenever we please.
The idea was a great idea until Danielle decided to have all her million of alarms go off all morning. So with that my plan to sleep in was washed down the drain as I laid there wide awake at 7am. While everyone was sleeping I decided to just get up and moving.
It was a brisk 60 degree morning which was a big change from the past mornings. But nothing beats a chilly morning and having to wear a sweatshirt to the park. Plus even though it was a brisk morning it was blue skies and sunshine.
Everyone got up and moving and we made the nice walk over to the kingdom. Turns out I love the contemporary just for this reason. As we headed over Alish informed us that if we wanted to come back tomorrow that she could get us in on her break. I would never say no to a free day at a park.
We arrived a bit early before 9am however with not trying to draw crowds they were already letting people in. Christmas was alive and well on Main Street
Our first stop…like any other morning trip to MK was head straight to tomorrowland for Space mountain. I’m not all to sure where everyone else went off running because tomorrowland was dead.
Space mountain was a nice walk on and theres not better way to start your morning.
While we could have easily walked right back on we decided to hit up more attractions before the crowds were in full effect. Alish asked to see the wait for mine train so thats where we headed next. We ended up finding out where everyone went to. The line was probably shorter than it seemed but when it was already out by teacups it scared us off. So instead we headed through fantasyland and over to Thunder.
Here’s to one of the saddest sights ever to be seen in Disney
And while the bears weren’t up and singing, it was only right to at least get a photo with my country bear sweatshirt that I was wearing.
The wait for Splash was nonexistent but it was still a little bit chilly so we decided to wait on that.
A 5 minute wait for Thunder was also a nice thing to see. we Jumped in line and once again we were walking right on. As we walked through the queue I took this time to see if there were any reservations available for CMs tomorrow for MK. There was no such luck, so today we needed to get everything accomplished.
After thunder we headed to my only request for the day, Jingle Cruise.
Frontier land looked an awful lot like Tomorrowland, empty
The Jingle Cruise is one of my favorite things when the holiday comes around. Its your cheesy jokes but with that christmas twist, I don’t know why anyone would hate it. And it seemed like everyone wanted some christmas puns because the line looked very long. Once again the lines may look scary but thats because of the 6 feet apart from every direction and if we know anything about the jungle cruise line, its that they love to pack you in like sardines.
Kiss reminded me that he had yet to experience the Jingle cruise. We tried to go on it our last December trip, however we were those packed sardines that were trapped in the middle of the line and decided to jump ship.
So today was the make up day for that. My favorite thing about the jingle cruise is all the details they change over just for this overlay.
After about a 20 minute wait we hopped aboard Noel Nellie and unlike passed times our boat was not as full and was sectioned off by plexiglass.
Then we were off…ready to Jungle all the way
xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
Everything Is Satisfactual
After the Jungle cruise we decided to split up. I wanted to go to sleepy hollow for a waffle sandwich, Danielle wanted a mickey waffle, and Alish and Kiss wanted starbucks. So they headed to starbucks and we went to sleepy hallow and planned to meet after.
One of my favorite snacks (if thats what you would call it) but it seems like it has been forever since I last had it. The real struggles of Disney trips not having enough time to eat everything you want.
Breakfast with a view…you can’t beat it
Like always the waffle sandwich hit the spot and gets a 10 out of 10 from me. While we were enjoying our food, we saw as a family tried very hard to get cute pictures of their little toddler in front of the castle. If this is not me in the future, laying on the ground to get a picture of my precious child I will have changed as a person.
After we finished eating Alish and Kiss were still waiting in line at starbucks, so we decided to head to splash because they both said it was to chilly to go on it anyways and that they would meet us over there.
As we headed back to Frontierland our first sighting of a cavalcade was coming our way. Of course we had to stop because the Christmas floats were out.
The reason I love the cavalcades
you get to see the specialty ticketed floats and music
no one knows the times so if you have to be lucky to be in the right place at the right time
SOCIAL DISTANCING! No one pushing in front of you to watch as it passes by…this one is a huge one. Never will I miss waiting forever in the heat and someone coming in last minute pushing there way through to see.
After the cavalcade passed by we headed across the way to the bridge to bypass the crowds. This lasted maybe point two seconds because i made a dead stop as I saw the country bears out and waving down to the crowd.
Just a wild Sam in her natural habitat
Onward to Splash. With the news of Splash getting a revamp, I was both very sad but kind of excited. I love splash, its one of my favorite attractions. So yes I’m very sad to see it go. However I also love Princess and the frog and I can see them taking this attraction to a whole new level visually. Its a very win loose situation. I will be sad the day they tell us when its officially closed, but I feel like I will be in love with what they do with it.
So for now we play the game of how many times can I go on it before it closes for good.
Today we jumped in line at a 35 min wait and I was somewhat regretting it. The wait was not a time I would like to wait for a ride thats a water ride that I wished not to get wet on. But we committed.
We timed our wait and the 35 mins the sign said was a lie…we waited a solid 8 mins. Thats something I will never complain about. And on the plus side we were put in the back of the log with a family of 3 smushed in the front row.
With every drop I braced myself for the cold water to splash up at us. Then by the final drop I was pleased to make it out mostly dry. Danielle jumped in the log first so I dreaded getting to the end to the actual splash of splash mountain. RIP to all those right side passangers. On a hot august afternoon, drench me water fall. However today please do not. To my surprise the water fall was turned off and that was a kind gesture of Disney
When we got off Splash we found Alish and Kiss waiting by the gift shop for us. Alish right away told me to try here christmas in a cup drink she made at starbucks. I’m not a starbucks regular but when I go I now order christmas in a cup. Its a chai tea latte, no water, whole milk, 2 pumps cinnamon dolce 2 pumps white mocha. Its delicious.
At this point another cavalcade was about to start so we headed back to find a spot and this time we saw Santa
Our next plan of action was to head to Haunted mansion. As we made our way through frontier land yet again, the bears we once again out and this made my day
The thought of the HM line starting all the way back on the bridge across from country bears made me want to vomit a little. Thats quite a ways away from the actual ride itself not to mention that they had to weaving through the ferry boat entrance and exit line.
This was definitely the queue that was the craziest one we waited in. And to our surprise how long it was, it wasn’t even that awful of a wait. We waited 20 mins tops, because thanks to those continuous moving buggies and no pre show it was constantly moving.
After HM Danielle wanted to go into the store. So we waited in line to get in and once we got in she wanted everything because it was HM. I wish I could understand the hype of this ride, it just doesn’t do anything for me. So because there was a line to get in to this little shop Kiss and I decided to head out so more people could shop.
Danielle bought her merch and ripped open her knew phone case just to learn she bought the wrong size. So Alish and her headed back to return it, and Kiss and I headed to the castle to get some pictures.
Now the new castle…I will be completely honest, I don’t really like it. I never got into the whole rose gold fad and this castle looks brown when the sun hits it just right. It doesn’t pop as well when your standing on main street like the white did against the blue sky. So yeah, the rose gold castle…not my favorite.
However this did not stop me having a full blown photo shoot in front of it
And surprise surprise another cavalcade was making its way towards main street.
As we watched from a far Danielle and Alish made there way back through the castle to join us.
After the Jungle cruise we decided to split up. I wanted to go to sleepy hollow for a waffle sandwich, Danielle wanted a mickey waffle, and Alish and Kiss wanted starbucks. So they headed to starbucks and we went to sleepy hallow and planned to meet after.
One of my favorite snacks (if thats what you would call it) but it seems like it has been forever since I last had it. The real struggles of Disney trips not having enough time to eat everything you want.
Breakfast with a view…you can’t beat it
Like always the waffle sandwich hit the spot and gets a 10 out of 10 from me. While we were enjoying our food, we saw as a family tried very hard to get cute pictures of their little toddler in front of the castle. If this is not me in the future, laying on the ground to get a picture of my precious child I will have changed as a person.
After we finished eating Alish and Kiss were still waiting in line at starbucks, so we decided to head to splash because they both said it was to chilly to go on it anyways and that they would meet us over there.
As we headed back to Frontierland our first sighting of a cavalcade was coming our way. Of course we had to stop because the Christmas floats were out.
The reason I love the cavalcades
you get to see the specialty ticketed floats and music
no one knows the times so if you have to be lucky to be in the right place at the right time
SOCIAL DISTANCING! No one pushing in front of you to watch as it passes by…this one is a huge one. Never will I miss waiting forever in the heat and someone coming in last minute pushing there way through to see.
After the cavalcade passed by we headed across the way to the bridge to bypass the crowds. This lasted maybe point two seconds because i made a dead stop as I saw the country bears out and waving down to the crowd.
Just a wild Sam in her natural habitat
Onward to Splash. With the news of Splash getting a revamp, I was both very sad but kind of excited. I love splash, its one of my favorite attractions. So yes I’m very sad to see it go. However I also love Princess and the frog and I can see them taking this attraction to a whole new level visually. Its a very win loose situation. I will be sad the day they tell us when its officially closed, but I feel like I will be in love with what they do with it.
So for now we play the game of how many times can I go on it before it closes for good.
Today we jumped in line at a 35 min wait and I was somewhat regretting it. The wait was not a time I would like to wait for a ride thats a water ride that I wished not to get wet on. But we committed.
We timed our wait and the 35 mins the sign said was a lie…we waited a solid 8 mins. Thats something I will never complain about. And on the plus side we were put in the back of the log with a family of 3 smushed in the front row.
With every drop I braced myself for the cold water to splash up at us. Then by the final drop I was pleased to make it out mostly dry. Danielle jumped in the log first so I dreaded getting to the end to the actual splash of splash mountain. RIP to all those right side passangers. On a hot august afternoon, drench me water fall. However today please do not. To my surprise the water fall was turned off and that was a kind gesture of Disney
When we got off Splash we found Alish and Kiss waiting by the gift shop for us. Alish right away told me to try here christmas in a cup drink she made at starbucks. I’m not a starbucks regular but when I go I now order christmas in a cup. Its a chai tea latte, no water, whole milk, 2 pumps cinnamon dolce 2 pumps white mocha. Its delicious.
At this point another cavalcade was about to start so we headed back to find a spot and this time we saw Santa
Our next plan of action was to head to Haunted mansion. As we made our way through frontier land yet again, the bears we once again out and this made my day
The thought of the HM line starting all the way back on the bridge across from country bears made me want to vomit a little. Thats quite a ways away from the actual ride itself not to mention that they had to weaving through the ferry boat entrance and exit line.
This was definitely the queue that was the craziest one we waited in. And to our surprise how long it was, it wasn’t even that awful of a wait. We waited 20 mins tops, because thanks to those continuous moving buggies and no pre show it was constantly moving.
After HM Danielle wanted to go into the store. So we waited in line to get in and once we got in she wanted everything because it was HM. I wish I could understand the hype of this ride, it just doesn’t do anything for me. So because there was a line to get in to this little shop Kiss and I decided to head out so more people could shop.
Danielle bought her merch and ripped open her knew phone case just to learn she bought the wrong size. So Alish and her headed back to return it, and Kiss and I headed to the castle to get some pictures.
Now the new castle…I will be completely honest, I don’t really like it. I never got into the whole rose gold fad and this castle looks brown when the sun hits it just right. It doesn’t pop as well when your standing on main street like the white did against the blue sky. So yeah, the rose gold castle…not my favorite.
However this did not stop me having a full blown photo shoot in front of it
And surprise surprise another cavalcade was making its way towards main street.
As we watched from a far Danielle and Alish made there way back through the castle to join us.
xoSamma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
Spontaneous Tattoo Adventure
The only thing left I needed to do before we had to leave was see the toy soldiers. Luckily for me Alish was pretty sure one of her friend was working this day and got the set list times. Now while I know I’m lucky to get the inside scoop for when which cavalcade comes out, it really helped being able to accomplish everything in the morning. We decided early on that we would get some attractions done and then finish off with the toy soldiers that way we could just head out of the park afterwards.
Danielle decided to head back to the resort and lay by the pool. While we all had hopes of doing that this whole trip we accepted that that wasn’t in our cards. So we hung around Main Street. Before the Toy soldiers, was the princess cavalcade so we stopped to watch that.
After that cavalcade came through we decided to head into the Emporium. I was still on the hunt for the hades spirit jersey. I searched every where and came up empty handed, I was sad and regretted not picking it up on my first night at springs. (Side note: Brittany headed back to springs once I left and got it for me for christmas.)
Then it was time just to walk around the hub and take in all the christmas decorations
A sunburnt castle against a beautiful blue sky….
On Main Street they have green circles for your party to stand on to keep the distance. We ended up moving over to the side to claim one of these circles and one of ours. While these dots are a good idea, it doesn’t seem like it would work for a big group…or maybe you would just take over multiple dots.
The toy soldiers came out with the marching band and it was a great way to end our afternoon at MK. We followed them and headed out of the park. We walked back over to the contemporary. I ran back up to the room, Kiss and Alish went to get food. We then met back up at the gift shop.
Once everyone was accounted for we headed to Alish’s car and we were off to get tatted up.
This whole side adventure was not in our plans until less than 2 weeks before I got here. One day Alish texted me asking if we should get tattoos and I agreed to her crazy plan. However I would like to add that we already had plans to get tattoos while in quarantine lock down, we were at the process of scheduling till Disney called Alish back to work so it never happened.
Today we changed that and I was so excited. Kiss decided to join for fun. He wanted to get one but couldn’t get a hold of an artist before the trip. So he was there for moral support. When we got to the shop it was very clear how wild FL is with COVID. I’m use to NY lockdown mode so when I saw “Mask optional” on the door it threw me off.
We filled out all our paper work and waited for our artist to be ready. Since this place takes walk ins Kiss decided to see if the other worker could do what he wanted. The spontaneity must run in this families blood because next thing we know he was off get tatted before us.
Kiss was the first one to go and finish…he went with the rubber soul logo from the beatles album
Me and Alish were getting matching sister tattoos, bears for our brother bear.
While we are sisters, we are brother bears. Flashback to our last Disney Cruise December 2014 during my DCP. If you have ever been on a cruise you might be aware that there is a channel in your stateroom that is constantly showing the same movie. For our cruise it was Brother Bear, every time we went back to the room it was always on. And ever since then we always just called each other brother bear. Its just a plus that bears are my favorite animal.
The design process was interesting, I first suggested just getting a cute little bear print since Alish has to be mindful of where she has tattoos. That changed into a full on bear, and since we didn’t want just a plain outline of a bear and wanted a more girly flair to it we decided to have the bear made from vines of leaves.
Once Alish was done, it was my turn. I was very happy when I was told to lay down because it gave me time to rest…nothing like a afternoon after park nap. Brittany yelled at me later on saying I did not sleep while getting a tattoo. It was full on sleep, I was slowly drifting off but then all the workers were gossiping and it entertained me. There was a group that came in for walk in tattoos and they all wanted very intricate ones, they didn’t like how long they had to wait and that the artist wanted them to wear a mask when the door said optional. So they ended up leaving and all the workers were shocked about their attitude towards the request to wear a mask.
Overall I was pleased with this little adventure and outcome. It was quicker than we had planned. So I texted Brittany, she planned to head over to the contemporary to hang out in our room after work since she still had one of my magic bands. She then proceeded to tell me that she was called for a mandatory meeting so she was going to get to us as soon as possible.
On the way back we asked Kiss how his first experience was, and he told us he was ready to get more. The real struggle, once you get one you want more.
When we got back to the resort we hung out in the room waiting for Brittany to arrive. Her meeting was super short, they had decided to close down the school and switch over to virtual learning.
When Brittany arrived she dropped off all her stuff in own room and we headed for the monorail. We decided to get dinner at captain cooks, because throughout the years I’ve made everyone try and fall in love with the nachos. So now anytime I plan trips I text Brittany…nachos? And she is always on board. We mobile ordered on the way to the TTC, met Joe at the TTC and walked over to the Poly. The real struggle is the construction on the poly monorail stop.
The Polynesian is a ghost town and its very weird. With the construction and ohana not being open the dinner rush hour is not a thing, the ceremonial house was very quiet.
We still had some time to wait for our food so we headed into the gift shop where I finally got the gingerbread candle. I kept picking it up back at the Riviera but never actually purchased it.
Our food was ready, so we grabbed that and walked quickly back to the TTC. The real struggle was security but we got our temperate check and bag check. We headed back to the contemporary and was ready to scarf down our food. Joe decided to join us tonight because we talked about having to finish all the seltzers and he was ready to party because we failed the night we went to Disney Springs. We also wanted to make it to MK before it closed at 8. It was going on 6 so we had to get a move on.
When everyone was passing out the meals Kiss said they forgot an order of nachos…the mood went down fast. I said I didn’t need it and would run downstairs to get nuggets. Both Kiss and Brittany offered me theirs because they knew how much I loved those nachos. Me being the most stubborn person was ready to mobile order more food when Kiss goes “Oh wait theres another box in this bag….”
I was so relieved! I dream about these nachos. While they are not very photogenic nor look even appetizing at all I swear they are good!
We all chowed down and watched the new Cinderella movie…not by choice but because thats what was on TV at the moment.
The only thing left I needed to do before we had to leave was see the toy soldiers. Luckily for me Alish was pretty sure one of her friend was working this day and got the set list times. Now while I know I’m lucky to get the inside scoop for when which cavalcade comes out, it really helped being able to accomplish everything in the morning. We decided early on that we would get some attractions done and then finish off with the toy soldiers that way we could just head out of the park afterwards.
Danielle decided to head back to the resort and lay by the pool. While we all had hopes of doing that this whole trip we accepted that that wasn’t in our cards. So we hung around Main Street. Before the Toy soldiers, was the princess cavalcade so we stopped to watch that.
After that cavalcade came through we decided to head into the Emporium. I was still on the hunt for the hades spirit jersey. I searched every where and came up empty handed, I was sad and regretted not picking it up on my first night at springs. (Side note: Brittany headed back to springs once I left and got it for me for christmas.)
Then it was time just to walk around the hub and take in all the christmas decorations
A sunburnt castle against a beautiful blue sky….
On Main Street they have green circles for your party to stand on to keep the distance. We ended up moving over to the side to claim one of these circles and one of ours. While these dots are a good idea, it doesn’t seem like it would work for a big group…or maybe you would just take over multiple dots.
The toy soldiers came out with the marching band and it was a great way to end our afternoon at MK. We followed them and headed out of the park. We walked back over to the contemporary. I ran back up to the room, Kiss and Alish went to get food. We then met back up at the gift shop.
Once everyone was accounted for we headed to Alish’s car and we were off to get tatted up.
This whole side adventure was not in our plans until less than 2 weeks before I got here. One day Alish texted me asking if we should get tattoos and I agreed to her crazy plan. However I would like to add that we already had plans to get tattoos while in quarantine lock down, we were at the process of scheduling till Disney called Alish back to work so it never happened.
Today we changed that and I was so excited. Kiss decided to join for fun. He wanted to get one but couldn’t get a hold of an artist before the trip. So he was there for moral support. When we got to the shop it was very clear how wild FL is with COVID. I’m use to NY lockdown mode so when I saw “Mask optional” on the door it threw me off.
We filled out all our paper work and waited for our artist to be ready. Since this place takes walk ins Kiss decided to see if the other worker could do what he wanted. The spontaneity must run in this families blood because next thing we know he was off get tatted before us.
Kiss was the first one to go and finish…he went with the rubber soul logo from the beatles album
Me and Alish were getting matching sister tattoos, bears for our brother bear.
While we are sisters, we are brother bears. Flashback to our last Disney Cruise December 2014 during my DCP. If you have ever been on a cruise you might be aware that there is a channel in your stateroom that is constantly showing the same movie. For our cruise it was Brother Bear, every time we went back to the room it was always on. And ever since then we always just called each other brother bear. Its just a plus that bears are my favorite animal.
The design process was interesting, I first suggested just getting a cute little bear print since Alish has to be mindful of where she has tattoos. That changed into a full on bear, and since we didn’t want just a plain outline of a bear and wanted a more girly flair to it we decided to have the bear made from vines of leaves.
Once Alish was done, it was my turn. I was very happy when I was told to lay down because it gave me time to rest…nothing like a afternoon after park nap. Brittany yelled at me later on saying I did not sleep while getting a tattoo. It was full on sleep, I was slowly drifting off but then all the workers were gossiping and it entertained me. There was a group that came in for walk in tattoos and they all wanted very intricate ones, they didn’t like how long they had to wait and that the artist wanted them to wear a mask when the door said optional. So they ended up leaving and all the workers were shocked about their attitude towards the request to wear a mask.
Overall I was pleased with this little adventure and outcome. It was quicker than we had planned. So I texted Brittany, she planned to head over to the contemporary to hang out in our room after work since she still had one of my magic bands. She then proceeded to tell me that she was called for a mandatory meeting so she was going to get to us as soon as possible.
On the way back we asked Kiss how his first experience was, and he told us he was ready to get more. The real struggle, once you get one you want more.
When we got back to the resort we hung out in the room waiting for Brittany to arrive. Her meeting was super short, they had decided to close down the school and switch over to virtual learning.
When Brittany arrived she dropped off all her stuff in own room and we headed for the monorail. We decided to get dinner at captain cooks, because throughout the years I’ve made everyone try and fall in love with the nachos. So now anytime I plan trips I text Brittany…nachos? And she is always on board. We mobile ordered on the way to the TTC, met Joe at the TTC and walked over to the Poly. The real struggle is the construction on the poly monorail stop.
The Polynesian is a ghost town and its very weird. With the construction and ohana not being open the dinner rush hour is not a thing, the ceremonial house was very quiet.
We still had some time to wait for our food so we headed into the gift shop where I finally got the gingerbread candle. I kept picking it up back at the Riviera but never actually purchased it.
Our food was ready, so we grabbed that and walked quickly back to the TTC. The real struggle was security but we got our temperate check and bag check. We headed back to the contemporary and was ready to scarf down our food. Joe decided to join us tonight because we talked about having to finish all the seltzers and he was ready to party because we failed the night we went to Disney Springs. We also wanted to make it to MK before it closed at 8. It was going on 6 so we had to get a move on.
When everyone was passing out the meals Kiss said they forgot an order of nachos…the mood went down fast. I said I didn’t need it and would run downstairs to get nuggets. Both Kiss and Brittany offered me theirs because they knew how much I loved those nachos. Me being the most stubborn person was ready to mobile order more food when Kiss goes “Oh wait theres another box in this bag….”
I was so relieved! I dream about these nachos. While they are not very photogenic nor look even appetizing at all I swear they are good!
We all chowed down and watched the new Cinderella movie…not by choice but because thats what was on TV at the moment.
kilroy1966
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2014
I thought you might get a big Al tattoo.
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