The Florida Project! 12 Days @ WDW for our 10th Anniversary! UPDATED 9/23

[AAshleySEG]

Saturday, June 10, 2017 - "The Best PIZZA on the PLANET"

We had a little bit of a later start this morning. I got up around 7:30 am and started getting ready. Today we were headed to Hollywood Studios. The park opened up at 9:00 am, and I think we made it inside by 9:30! First stop as always is a little bit of breakfast. We used to get the breakfast sandwiches at all of the parks, but now we are really happy with our croissants and coffee breakfast. It is always really quick because most people are headed to rides when the park opens, but we are able to grab something, walk around and take in the morning of hustle and bustle before we start riding the rides! Even though we didn't really need it our first Fast Pass this morning was for Star Tours! It was cool to see all of the construction in person and the magnitude and scale that these new areas of the park were going to be!

We hardly ever ride The Great Movie Ride, but we checked the app and the wait times and thought hey why not, who knows how much longer this attraction will remain the same with the rest of the stuff going on at this park. It is definitely not our favorite thing to do, but when there is no wait and you are passing by, why not! I did take a moment for a photo op outside of the theater though!

Hey Look! It's Mary Poppins, Ya'll!!!

Once we finished riding The Great Movie Ride it was time for another Fast Pass, and that was our 2nd favorite competition, Toy Story Midway Mania! So we walked over toward the Pixar Studios area and again checked out all of the construction going on in the distance!

After just a few minutes we were on the ride, it is so much fun, I remember when the lines to ride this were wrapped around outside, today though, I don't know if it is because of all the construction or what, but even the standby line was only around 30 minutes. But for me, it is so easy to make a fast pass on the app, you don't even need to wait that long! First round...Jeremy 0 - Andrea 1

Since the half of the park beyond Toy Story Midway Mania is closed off now, and the next thing we wanted to go towards was Muppets, you have to walk all the way around, so we passed back by The Theater and decided to stop by and let Jeremy get his handprints cast! Just kidding, but it is a pretty funny photo station!

I am seriously shocked at how low all of the wait times have been, not just at this park but yesterday at Animal Kingdom too, I mean we can pretty much just walk on to a lot of the attractions, and if we can't, we can get a fast pass for an hour or so out and do other things while walking over to them. Summer maybe be a little warm and I am the first one to advocate going to Disney in Fall/Winter, but geez, with crowd levels like this, this trip is fantastic! We made it over to Muppets and guess what, 10 minute wait, and the only reason it is that, is because we walked up just as the show started, so we just had to wait for the next one.

The muppets show is still pretty funny actually, and by now it was about lunch time! Our absolute favorite go-to place at Hollywood Studios for lunch was always Pizza Planet! The theme has definitely changed now since they updated it, but at least the sign still pas tribute to what came before, cleverly as "The Best Pizza on the Planet"

We were thrilled to find out that the pizzas are still the same ones! They have not changed these to flat breads or anything, just those amazing little standard round Disney pizzas that are getting fewer and fewer locations that serve them, they used to be everywhere! We actually really love the new theme of this restaurant! It is pretty fantastic. We decided to go upstairs and found this awesome little ballroom where there was disco ball and lights to the music and everything! Super fun, and bonus, it was not busy at all and we pretty much had the room to ourselves the entire meal!

The lighting in here is a little crazy but I had a vegetable pizza with Caesar Salad and Jeremy had a cheese pizza with Caesar Salad! They were just as delicious as I remember. They may not be for everyone, but they are a guilty pleasure food of ours! Definitely something that you can pretty much only get at Disney and just a nostalgic type of food that I am sure will eventually be phased out. You can tell that the lighting in here was crazy, but we loved it! The rest of the restaurant is like an Italian style eatery/pizza place and looks great! I didn't take any photos out there, but I think they did a great job!

For dessert, we tried the Tiramisu, and that for us was a miss. I think it had way too much liquid in it and it was very soggy and watery. We finished up lunch at about 12:40 and started heading over to the Star Wars Launch Bay, we have yet to see all of the memorabilia in there. Last time we were here, it was still the Animation area. So we were very interested in how everything looked now with all the Star Wars meet and greets and stuff!



​

 

[AAshleySEG]

Saturday, June 10, 2017 (Part Two) - "Try To Avoid Any Further Public Disturbance"

The first thing we did after lunch was head over to Star Wars Launch Bay, this trip we weren't really doing any character meet and greets, but we did want to see the new film in the theater. We had not been here since they updated this area, so the last thing we saw here was the Mushu Animation show...so that was a little while. Although the film was mostly things we already knew and had kind of seen before, I bet most people that don't watch/read/search for Star Wars news and updates as much as we do, probably wouldn't have seen that type of stuff. We are kind of Star Wars nerds. While we were standing outside of the theater, a couple of First Order Storm Troopers made their way through the crowd and I really love that they do that.

After the show we walked around looking at all of the memorabilia and replica stuff that they had inside. It was definitely a little sad to see all of the really cool stuff from the animated movies and especially that little artist animator area where you observe them gone, but we did like the fact that it was Star Wars for the moment, so that was a plus. Also as we were walking around in another room the First Order came back in that room and announced themselves, and for some reason Jeremy got in trouble! You can see the actual encounter in the recap video if you want to see it! They walked right up to him and said "Try To Avoid Any Further Public Disturbance" it was really funny but I didn't have a photo of it because it happened so quickly, and caught me off guard, but it was hilarious! Our last pre-made Fast Pass was for Tower of Terror so around 1:15 pm we started making our way in that direction!

As soon as we rode it, the clouds started moving in and it started to drizzle, so it was the perfect time for us to head back to the resort for an afternoon break. Luckily we had already decided to do that before we got on the ride, but it was a bonus sort of that we had made the right decision, so we would rest for a bit and come back later. Before we left we made a Fast Pass for Rock N Roller Coaster around the time we thought we would return around 5-something. By 2:30 pm we were back in the room relaxing for a bit while watching the storm outside, it was raining so hard the sidewalks were flooding. It was so funny too because everyone kept saying oh we are in a drought, but it rained every day we were there. Not little rain, but downpour sidewalk flooding rain most days! We also watched a little bit of Hercules on TV and by around 4:45 pm we were back out at the bus stop ready to head back to the park!

Our first stop when we went back was to get a snack!! We hear so much about the Carrot Cake cookies over at Beverly Sunset Sweets, so we had to go inside and get one! It was so soft and delicious and perfect! We are probably going to add this to our go-to snack list! For a while we did cupcakes everywhere, now I think we are expanding a little to some of the other special items that you can only get in certain places! But if you like Carrot Cake, then this is for you, and it was so huge too!!

After we quickly scarfed down that delicious cookie cake, we walked over toward Rock N Roller Coaster where our next fast pass was. I really don't remember what it was like at Disney without fast passes anymore. They are so amazingly convenient. I do remember on our honeymoon we were at Disneyland and we waited in like a 3 hour line to ride Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, and after that we pretty much vowed never to wait in a line longer than 45 minutes ever again. Then when we were in Disneyland Paris in 2010, the lines were quite long also, we felt like we missed out on so many things standing in those lines that now at Disney World, we really try to make use of the Fast Pass system as much as possible! I think at the time the coaster had a 60 minute wait, so getting in, in less than 10 minutes from walking in to in the seat is so worth the extra minute of effort for us!

You can tell it was still a little cloudy and gray outside, but while we were walking through the line inside, I snagged a fast pass for Toy Story Midway Mania again and we had maybe 30 minutes until it was time for it at 6:00 pm. So after we were off Rock N Roller Coaster we walked over and rode Star Tours to pass the time again with no wait at all! We were having such good luck, it was really cool! This time on Star Tours we went to Hoth and Naboo! Off to our Fast Pass to TSMM and to see if Jeremy could beat me this time around! So this was ride #2 for the day on it! This round Jeremy finished up with 161,700 and I managed to get a 217,600! I always get so proud of myself when I break that 200,000 mark, I never get best of the hour or day or month, but it still makes me happy! Again while we were in line for it this time we made another fast pass for it for 7:00 pm. We love it so much, the game type rides are pretty much our favorites and they are always such a blast!

It was dinner time after we got off and so we started checking out the menus trying to decide what we wanted to eat. While we were doing that Jeremy said he wanted to ride Star Tours one more time before we ate so we walked over and hopped on again, this time we got Tatooine Pod Racing and Coruscant! So 3 rides for the day on Star Tours and that would probably be the last for it. I had only eaten there one time before and Jeremy had never eaten there so we decided to go to ABC Commissary. We both chose the Lemon Pepper Salmon with couscous and green beans! You know what we REALLY enjoyed it! Everything was cooked perfectly and even though it may not look like the best meal on a plate, it was still great! It was not busy inside at all, there was no one in line to order, and then we got to sit down at a table and the food was brought out to us.

After we ate dinner it was time for us to head back to TSMM for our third ride of the day, this time I tried to teach Jeremy what I was doing, let him in on some of the secrets as it were. Again, I made a fast pass for another ride on it while we were in line and this was going to be the last fast pass for us and it was for 8:00 pm. This time after I had told him all of the things I do, he ended up with a score of 150,300 and I got a 240,800! I was so psyched, It was my highest score ever!

We had done our 3rd fast pass very close to the end of the time last time, by the time we finished this ride it was already time for the 8:00 pm fast pass that I had made while we were in line. We went in and this time around they sent us around the accessible ramp since we were a party of two and they paired us with a really nice family! So ride number four of the day, he did great on round four and came in with a score of 199,300 to my 223,300! Once the ride was over and we made it back to the staging area the cast members asked us all if we wanted to ride again! Of course we all did! So once more around for our 5th ride of TSMM for the day! It was so awesome and the family we sat with was fantastic too! They were so friendly! My arm was so tired after all of that, it got a really great workout today! Final scores for the day were Jeremy 159,700 and me 220,500. We had such a blast today. We were getting pretty worn out and we had seen the fireworks and things before so we decided that we would just head back to the resort before the crowds did. Jeremy wanted to stop at Starbucks to get a Shaken Sweet Black Tea before we left though. We made it back to the room at about 9:20 pm and started relaxing and getting ready for bed, tomorrow we had a Magic Kingdom Day planned!!

Recap! We rode Star Tours 3 times, Toy Story Midway Mania 5 times, Tower of Terror and Rock N Roller Coaster one time each, We rode The Great Movie Ride, saw the Muppets Show, Walked Through Star Wars Launch Bay and Saw the movie, had lunch at Pizzerizzo and dinner at ABC Commissary! It was a great day and we were really excited for tomorrow!

Stay Tuned for the Budget of the Day!​

 

[AAshleySEG]

Last Trip Report I did a budget post so we could see how we did in relation to how much I budgeted for our trip. We got a lot of positive feedback on it, so I am going to do the same thing this time, only a tad differently. Instead of doing a budget post at the end of each post, I am going to do one for an entire day once I am finished with it. That way, with it being in a separate post, if someone wants to read it they can, and if not they can just skip over it!

Our total budget we have saved for this vacation is $3500.00 in the savings account, the day we left we transferred that to checking and kept all of our receipts along the way, we also tallied everything up for each day at the end. Anytime we would have additional cash from other sources we would add that to a vacation envelope and we also always toss all change into a jar and so the change was converted into cash too, we were thinking we would use the cash for anything not budgeted for, souvenirs, snacks, things of that nature, in total we ended up with $578.00 in our cash envelope to take with us! So the totals at the bottom represent how we are doing as far as budgeted vs actual, and then below that, the cash is what we have left of the original $578.00. If you have any questions about how we budgeted for the trip or anything, just let me know!

Saturday, June 10, 2017 Budget!

Budgeted Amounts
Breakfast - $30 - Hollywood Studios
Lunch - $30 - Hollywood Studios
Dinner - $50 - Hollywood Studios
Total: $110.00

Actual Spent
Breakfast - The Trolley Car Cafe' - $15.40
Lunch - PizzeRizzo - $29.14
Dinner - ABC Commissary - $40.86
Total: $88.91

CASH - Carrot Cake Cookie at Beverly Sunset Sweets - $4.25

Budget Status
$21.09 Under for Today
$88.53 Under Budget Overall
($532.64) Remaining In Saved Up Cash for Extras​

 

[LALA8971]

Joining is and am loving your budget stats at the end of the posts!

We live on the NC coast in a little town called Southport, NC

I love that town! We live in OR, but my hubby is from VA, so we vacation in Holden Beach and take a side trip to Bald Head Island every chance we get!

 

[Teetah]

Friday, June 10, 2017 - "The Best PIZZA on the PLANET"

We had a little bit of a later start this morning. I got up around 7:30 am and started getting ready. Today we were headed to Hollywood Studios. The park opened up at 9:00 am, and I think we made it inside by 9:30! First stop as always is a little bit of breakfast. We used to get the breakfast sandwiches at all of the parks, but now we are really happy with our croissants and coffee breakfast. It is always really quick because most people are headed to rides when the park opens, but we are able to grab something, walk around and take in the morning of hustle and bustle before we start riding the rides! Even though we didn't really need it our first Fast Pass this morning was for Star Tours! It was cool to see all of the construction in person and the magnitude and scale that these new areas of the park were going to be!





We hardly ever ride The Great Movie Ride, but we checked the app and the wait times and thought hey why not, who knows how much longer this attraction will remain the same with the rest of the stuff going on at this park. It is definitely not our favorite thing to do, but when there is no wait and you are passing by, why not! I did take a moment for a photo op outside of the theater though!





Hey Look! It's Mary Poppins, Ya'll!!!



Once we finished riding The Great Movie Ride it was time for another Fast Pass, and that was our 2nd favorite competition, Toy Story Midway Mania! So we walked over toward the Pixar Studios area and again checked out all of the construction going on in the distance!



After just a few minutes we were on the ride, it is so much fun, I remember when the lines to ride this were wrapped around outside, today though, I don't know if it is because of all the construction or what, but even the standby line was only around 30 minutes. But for me, it is so easy to make a fast pass on the app, you don't even need to wait that long! First round...Jeremy 0 - Andrea 1



Since the half of the park beyond Toy Story Midway Mania is closed off now, and the next thing we wanted to go towards was Muppets, you have to walk all the way around, so we passed back by The Theater and decided to stop by and let Jeremy get his handprints cast! Just kidding, but it is a pretty funny photo station!



I am seriously shocked at how low all of the wait times have been, not just at this park but yesterday at Animal Kingdom too, I mean we can pretty much just walk on to a lot of the attractions, and if we can't, we can get a fast pass for an hour or so out and do other things while walking over to them. Summer maybe be a little warm and I am the first one to advocate going to Disney in Fall/Winter, but geez, with crowd levels like this, this trip is fantastic! We made it over to Muppets and guess what, 10 minute wait, and the only reason it is that, is because we walked up just as the show started, so we just had to wait for the next one.



The muppets show is still pretty funny actually, and by now it was about lunch time! Our absolute favorite go-to place at Hollywood Studios for lunch was always Pizza Planet! The theme has definitely changed now since they updated it, but at least the sign still pas tribute to what came before, cleverly as "The Best Pizza on the Planet"



We were thrilled to find out that the pizzas are still the same ones! They have not changed these to flat breads or anything, just those amazing little standard round Disney pizzas that are getting fewer and fewer locations that serve them, they used to be everywhere! We actually really love the new theme of this restaurant! It is pretty fantastic. We decided to go upstairs and found this awesome little ballroom where there was disco ball and lights to the music and everything! Super fun, and bonus, it was not busy at all and we pretty much had the room to ourselves the entire meal!

The lighting in here is a little crazy but I had a vegetable pizza with Caesar Salad and Jeremy had a cheese pizza with Caesar Salad! They were just as delicious as I remember. They may not be for everyone, but they are a guilty pleasure food of ours! Definitely something that you can pretty much only get at Disney and just a nostalgic type of food that I am sure will eventually be phased out. You can tell that the lighting in here was crazy, but we loved it! The rest of the restaurant is like an Italian style eatery/pizza place and looks great! I didn't take any photos out there, but I think they did a great job!

For dessert, we tried the Tiramisu, and that for us was a miss. I think it had way too much liquid in it and it was very soggy and watery. We finished up lunch at about 12:40 and started heading over to the Star Wars Launch Bay, we have yet to see all of the memorabilia in there. Last time we were here, it was still the Animation area. So we were very interested in how everything looked now with all the Star Wars meet and greets and stuff!



​

Nice job sleeping in a bit!!!

I vaguely remember those pizzas, I think...they look like the kind of stuff we ate as a kid, which would be really fun to have again!

Mushu and the animator viewing being gone makes me sads. I am not super into Star Wars. I actually never watched the first three that were produced until this past year. In fact - and this will make you chuckle - for years I thought Harrison Ford played Luke Skywalker lol. They were good, but I honestly just don't have the attention span to get into something new lol. I have too many hobbies as it is!

Saturday, June 10, 2017 (Part Two) - "Try To Avoid Any Further Public Disturbance"

The first thing we did after lunch was head over to Star Wars Launch Bay, this trip we weren't really doing any character meet and greets, but we did want to see the new film in the theater. We had not been here since they updated this area, so the last thing we saw here was the Mushu Animation show...so that was a little while. Although the film was mostly things we already knew and had kind of seen before, I bet most people that don't watch/read/search for Star Wars news and updates as much as we do, probably wouldn't have seen that type of stuff. We are kind of Star Wars nerds. While we were standing outside of the theater, a couple of First Order Storm Troopers made their way through the crowd and I really love that they do that.

After the show we walked around looking at all of the memorabilia and replica stuff that they had inside. It was definitely a little sad to see all of the really cool stuff from the animated movies and especially that little artist animator area where you observe them gone, but we did like the fact that it was Star Wars for the moment, so that was a plus. Also as we were walking around in another room the First Order came back in that room and announced themselves, and for some reason Jeremy got in trouble! You can see the actual encounter in the recap video if you want to see it! They walked right up to him and said "Try To Avoid Any Further Public Disturbance" it was really funny but I didn't have a photo of it because it happened so quickly, and caught me off guard, but it was hilarious! Our last pre-made Fast Pass was for Tower of Terror so around 1:15 pm we started making our way in that direction!



As soon as we rode it, the clouds started moving in and it started to drizzle, so it was the perfect time for us to head back to the resort for an afternoon break. Luckily we had already decided to do that before we got on the ride, but it was a bonus sort of that we had made the right decision, so we would rest for a bit and come back later. Before we left we made a Fast Pass for Rock N Roller Coaster around the time we thought we would return around 5-something. By 2:30 pm we were back in the room relaxing for a bit while watching the storm outside, it was raining so hard the sidewalks were flooding. It was so funny too because everyone kept saying oh we are in a drought, but it rained every day we were there. Not little rain, but downpour sidewalk flooding rain most days! We also watched a little bit of Hercules on TV and by around 4:45 pm we were back out at the bus stop ready to head back to the park!

Our first stop when we went back was to get a snack!! We hear so much about the Carrot Cake cookies over at Beverly Sunset Sweets, so we had to go inside and get one! It was so soft and delicious and perfect! We are probably going to add this to our go-to snack list! For a while we did cupcakes everywhere, now I think we are expanding a little to some of the other special items that you can only get in certain places! But if you like Carrot Cake, then this is for you, and it was so huge too!!





After we quickly scarfed down that delicious cookie cake, we walked over toward Rock N Roller Coaster where our next fast pass was. I really don't remember what it was like at Disney without fast passes anymore. They are so amazingly convenient. I do remember on our honeymoon we were at Disneyland and we waited in like a 3 hour line to ride Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, and after that we pretty much vowed never to wait in a line longer than 45 minutes ever again. Then when we were in Disneyland Paris in 2010, the lines were quite long also, we felt like we missed out on so many things standing in those lines that now at Disney World, we really try to make use of the Fast Pass system as much as possible! I think at the time the coaster had a 60 minute wait, so getting in, in less than 10 minutes from walking in to in the seat is so worth the extra minute of effort for us!



You can tell it was still a little cloudy and gray outside, but while we were walking through the line inside, I snagged a fast pass for Toy Story Midway Mania again and we had maybe 30 minutes until it was time for it at 6:00 pm. So after we were off Rock N Roller Coaster we walked over and rode Star Tours to pass the time again with no wait at all! We were having such good luck, it was really cool! This time on Star Tours we went to Hoth and Naboo! Off to our Fast Pass to TSMM and to see if Jeremy could beat me this time around! So this was ride #2 for the day on it! This round Jeremy finished up with 161,700 and I managed to get a 217,600! I always get so proud of myself when I break that 200,000 mark, I never get best of the hour or day or month, but it still makes me happy! Again while we were in line for it this time we made another fast pass for it for 7:00 pm. We love it so much, the game type rides are pretty much our favorites and they are always such a blast!

It was dinner time after we got off and so we started checking out the menus trying to decide what we wanted to eat. While we were doing that Jeremy said he wanted to ride Star Tours one more time before we ate so we walked over and hopped on again, this time we got Tatooine Pod Racing and Coruscant! So 3 rides for the day on Star Tours and that would probably be the last for it. I had only eaten there one time before and Jeremy had never eaten there so we decided to go to ABC Commissary. We both chose the Lemon Pepper Salmon with couscous and green beans! You know what we REALLY enjoyed it! Everything was cooked perfectly and even though it may not look like the best meal on a plate, it was still great! It was not busy inside at all, there was no one in line to order, and then we got to sit down at a table and the food was brought out to us.

After we ate dinner it was time for us to head back to TSMM for our third ride of the day, this time I tried to teach Jeremy what I was doing, let him in on some of the secrets as it were. Again, I made a fast pass for another ride on it while we were in line and this was going to be the last fast pass for us and it was for 8:00 pm. This time after I had told him all of the things I do, he ended up with a score of 150,300 and I got a 240,800! I was so psyched, It was my highest score ever!

We had done our 3rd fast pass very close to the end of the time last time, by the time we finished this ride it was already time for the 8:00 pm fast pass that I had made while we were in line. We went in and this time around they sent us around the accessible ramp since we were a party of two and they paired us with a really nice family! So ride number four of the day, he did great on round four and came in with a score of 199,300 to my 223,300! Once the ride was over and we made it back to the staging area the cast members asked us all if we wanted to ride again! Of course we all did! So once more around for our 5th ride of TSMM for the day! It was so awesome and the family we sat with was fantastic too! They were so friendly! My arm was so tired after all of that, it got a really great workout today! Final scores for the day were Jeremy 159,700 and me 220,500. We had such a blast today. We were getting pretty worn out and we had seen the fireworks and things before so we decided that we would just head back to the resort before the crowds did. Jeremy wanted to stop at Starbucks to get a Shaken Sweet Black Tea before we left though. We made it back to the room at about 9:20 pm and started relaxing and getting ready for bed, tomorrow we had a Magic Kingdom Day planned!!

Recap! We rode Star Tours 3 times, Toy Story Midway Mania 5 times, Tower of Terror and Rock N Roller Coaster one time each, We rode The Great Movie Ride, saw the Muppets Show, Walked Through Star Wars Launch Bay and Saw the movie, had lunch at Pizzerizzo and dinner at ABC Commissary! It was a great day and we were really excited for tomorrow!

Stay Tuned for the Budget of the Day!​

You guys are KILLING it on the wait times and ride numbers! I love that you can keep making FPs on the app now! Man, I can't wait to try that!

We have always had decent luck at ABC - not fantastic or anything, but always solid.

Tim would LOVE that carrot cake cookie!!!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Joining is and am loving your budget stats at the end of the posts!

Thank you so much for joining in! I am so happy that you are enjoying the budget updates!!

I love that town! We live in OR, but my hubby is from VA, so we vacation in Holden Beach and take a side trip to Bald Head Island every chance we get!

That is so cool! It is so funny too because we have lived here since 2013 and still have yet to go to Bald Head! I hear such great things about it, we really need to go over there sometime! I will probably wait until the season is over so it will be more quiet, it is crazy here right now!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Nice job sleeping in a bit!!!

I vaguely remember those pizzas, I think...they look like the kind of stuff we ate as a kid, which would be really fun to have again!

Mushu and the animator viewing being gone makes me sads. I am not super into Star Wars. I actually never watched the first three that were produced until this past year. In fact - and this will make you chuckle - for years I thought Harrison Ford played Luke Skywalker lol. They were good, but I honestly just don't have the attention span to get into something new lol. I have too many hobbies as it is!

I know right! We don't sleep in very often, it was nice to wake up a little later than I normally do on my own. It is so rare that I use an alarm clock these days, I have a really hard time sleeping past 5:30-6:30 am. Lately I just wake up and write the TR =D

Those pizzas! Ahhh...the pizzas! I can't even say they are like fantastic or anything, but they are so nostalgic Disney World for us we just love them. They are definitely one of our Top 10 comfort foods from Disney that a trip is pretty much not a Disney Trip unless we get that! I really hope they keep them, at least somewhere, that would definitely make me sad if they got rid of those.

Yeah, that building has a completely different feel now, and especially for someone who is more into Disney as opposed to Star Wars it can be pretty jarring, even for me, someone who loves Star Wars misses the Classically Disney element that area had. I am not sure but hoping once they get the Star Wars area built it will go back to being something else, but I have no idea what that park is going to look like in a few years! By then they might have the right to have Marvel stuff in parks east of the Mississippi and then it could be super hero themed??? That is too funny about the Harrison Ford thing, and I hear ya about not needing a new hobby, I need to get rid of a few as it is!

You guys are KILLING it on the wait times and ride numbers! I love that you can keep making FPs on the app now! Man, I can't wait to try that!

We have always had decent luck at ABC - not fantastic or anything, but always solid.

Tim would LOVE that carrot cake cookie!!!

Yes, that app is worth the download! It was really easy to open it look at the wait times, see where we were and what had open fast passes. It also helped that we are really flexible and there weren't any must ride attractions for us. The ones that I really wanted to ride I did the FP for in advance and everything else was just winging it! I am curious how it will be as more people start using it and at different times of the year like the Fall!

That is good to hear, it ABC was really actually quite good for what we ordered. Everything was cooked perfectly, which is always a plus and it tasted pretty good too, we are definitely going to keep it on our list of places if they actually keep it once all of the new stuff opens, it is in such a strange place that when everything else opens back up not many people will be walking through that way anymore.

Next time you guys go, you should definitely get one! That cookie was so good, I was really happy that I heard about it right before we went, otherwise I would have never even known to go there and try it!

 

[rdkeim]

Really enjoying your TR! You're doing great staying on budget. I used to get the carrot cookies at the Writer's Stop in HS. Now that it's closed, I'm happy to know where to find them. They are huge! I would keep them in the room frig and enjoy for 2-3 days

 

[AAshleySEG]

Really enjoying your TR! You're doing great staying on budget. I used to get the carrot cookies at the Writer's Stop in HS. Now that it's closed, I'm happy to know where to find them. They are huge! I would keep them in the room frig and enjoy for 2-3 days

Thank you, really happy you are enjoying it!! We were really happy with how the budget went this time, later on in the trip we start to "splurge" a little more, but I don't want to spoil how it goes..haha!! Yes, we had heard that Writer's Stop had them, and then right before we came this trip we saw someone say they had them here at Beverly Sunset so we were really glad we were able to try them since we never got a chance before!! You have more will power than us, after we took the first bites, we ate it before we made it over in front of ToT!

 

[annie170]

Five times on TSMM is unheard of! Do share your secrets to such high scores.

Was HS really that empty that day? I'm starting to feel like HS needs more attractions.

I love that carrot cake cookie. Three of us shared one this past January.

 

[AAshleySEG]

Five times on TSMM is unheard of! Do share your secrets to such high scores.

Was HS really that empty that day? I'm starting to feel like HS needs more attractions.

I love that carrot cake cookie. Three of us shared one this past January.

I think that is the most amount of times we have ever ridden it in one day! It was so much fun! They aren't really secrets just bonus things that you make happen during some of the rounds. During the one with the rings, if you get rings around all the aliens inside the rocket ship at they same time before they respawn the ship will open up for extra points, if you hit both 2000 point plates on the army men, the tank will shoot 5000 point plates, on each side of the balloon pop there are 5 balloon clusters if you get all of those down before they respawn a flood of 500 point balloons will come down. There are some really great videos and guides out there if you want to score HUGE points, I am happy just having fun and knowing a few things, maybe one day I will practice and get the big ones...haha!

It didn't feel that empty, which is the strange thing. The only attraction that had more than 30 minute wait times was a think Rock N Roller Coaster, it didn't have any effect on us though since we made a fast pass, and I can really only ride it once, it is so jarring for me...haha! I can't imagine how many people are going to be in that park with Toy Story and Star Wars Lands open up! It is going to be crazy! I am going to enjoy it while I can...LOL!!

That carrot cake cookie is so good, I can't believe we didn't know about it before!!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Sunday, June 11, 2017 - Who is a Cosmic Commando?

This morning I woke up at around 7:00 am and started getting ready! Today, we were headed to the Magic Kingdom and there were a few things we were really excited about doing! By 8:05, we were out the door and only had to wait a few minutes for the bus. It was going to be our first experience with the new bag check security areas. It was a very long one. I think we must have gotten there at the worst possible time. I feel like they need separate security lines like they have at the airport for experienced travelers...the ones who know how to go through security. If we happen to have bags and I did this morning, I have every pocket unzipped, mine is a cross body, so I have it off of my person and ready to hand over and it literally takes like less than 10 seconds, for them to check it and I am back ready to go...I always get stuck behind people who I am assuming have never been before and even though the cast members are constantly saying, have your bags open and off your body ready to be checked, they keep them on...with all of the zippers closed. Then they have bags inside their bags with closed zippers, then when they security starts going through their stuff, they always say...well that bag is just this...or this bag only has that in it..and get irritated when they open their things. Like I said...not meaning to rant, but when security takes like 30 minutes to get through...that may be a problem. Experienced Disney guest line...haha!!! They do have passholder lines which is good start!

The first stop this morning has been our favorite stop for years. We used to go in and get the Ham, Egg, and Cheese croissants, then go sit outside the Plaza for breakfast to take in all of the people rushing to get to their first rides of the day. Main Street Bakery was always such a great place to go in, I love the decor and it was just awesome, yes it has now changed, we get regular croissants and starbucks coffee, but it is still on Main Street and we still like to grab our food while everyone else is trying to get on SDMT, and we can casually walk over to our first rides! We chose to head toward Adventureland this morning. First stop was Pirates of the Caribbean! When we first got over there it looked like there was a pile up outside, not sure what was going on, but Jeremy took a second to film a video clip and by the time he was finished it was free and clear for a walk on ride! Next we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain for a less than 10 minute wait. I love MK in the morning, you can get so many things checked off your list in record time! Our first fastpass for the morning was for Splash Mountain!

I can't remember what the wait time was, but this is on my Top 5 favorites at Magic Kingdom list. I remember back in 1997, I got to go on a Make-A-Wish trip to Disney World and my grandmother rode this with me, I need to find that photo, but since then I think of her every time I ride it. It has a huge nostalgia factor for me and since she is no longer with us, a nice connection and memory of her that I have. Once we finished our ride on Splash Mountain we decided to walk around and ended up over at the Tea Party! Normally, this is not something we ride, but today, we thought, what the heck, the wait is like 5 minutes, let's go for it!

I don't think either of us do too well with spinning, which is why we normally don't ride this, or Dumbo, and never Astro Orbiter. Today we were feelin' froggy and so after this one we headed toward Storybook Circus to do a few things there!

I really love the queue line for Dumbo since they moved it over to this area. It used to be the worst in the park I think. Just standard back and forth with nothing to look at. Now you can go inside and play if you have kids, or for us just looking up and seeing the tent lit up is pretty cool!

For us, we didn't have to wait long at all, I think maybe 8 minutes and we were getting ready to load in and fly!

After we finished flying with Dumbo we turned and headed toward Barnstormer. It may be the shortest ride at the park, but I still think it is cute! I love Goofy, and I still remember visiting Toon Town back in the day. We would always go through the houses, and ride the Barnstormer, the houses are long gone, but we can still ride this one! Definitely meant for children, we are big kids, so hey we will squeeze in, and this time we got the back of the plane!

This one was less than 10 minutes as well and while we were in the line I took a picture of Space Mountain, we ride it occasionally, I am just not the biggest fan of it, but we do still ride it every once in a while, we probably weren't going to today, but since I could see it, I snapped the picture.

After our ride on the Barnstormer we decided to take the scenic route and walk along the path of the train route over to Tomorrowland. As our luck would have it, there was a train going by just as we started down it! The Walt Disney World Railroad, is another must do on our Top 5 favorites at MK list! Every single time we go, we ride the train at least once! Right now though, we were headed over to out next fast pass which was for Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin!

We made it over to Tomorrowland, scanned our bands and went inside, we took the obligatory photo of Buzz, because I only have that same photo about 50 times in my Walt Disney World photo collection, but I was here so I did it!

Jeremy was ready this morning. After me winning 5 times yesterday at Toy Story Midway Mania he was determined to beat me on this one! So we got in our car and started shooting! I was ready and trying to shoot all of my marks I had learned over the years. Jeremy ended up with a score of 97,200...and I was a Cosmic Commando, with 890,100! I didn't manage to max out this time but there were still more rides of the day to try and get it!

We got off Buzz and decided to walk toward the hub. We didn't know where we wanted to go yet, but decided to walk that way and see if anything came to us! We were very flexible today, just happening upon things to do or see, which worked out so well! I was going to check the app, see the wait times for different things, maybe find somewhere for a snack, and then walk around until it was time for our third fast pass at 11:45!​

 

[rdkeim]

Sounds like a good morning so far. I like your touring style. Relaxed but you're still getting a lot done. My DH and I are going early Dec. and with him I have to slow it down a bit. I even scheduled a park day off in the middle of the week - that will be a first for me but I'm kinda looking forward to it.

 

[AAshleySEG]

Sounds like a good morning so far. I like your touring style. Relaxed but you're still getting a lot done. My DH and I are going early Dec. and with him I have to slow it down a bit. I even scheduled a park day off in the middle of the week - that will be a first for me but I'm kinda looking forward to it.

We had a fantastic morning, it wasn't too warm either which was nice! We have grown into that style in the last few years, sometimes we still try and do specific planned things, but mostly we are enjoying the take it all in aspect of the parks! The park day off is a great idea, we did a few of them, still stayed on property and did lots of things, those are the last few days of the TR so you will be able to see what we did on property outside of all the parks!! You should absolutely be looking forward to it, it was really awesome for us to be able to do a lot of things we have never done, as well as things we really enjoy, still had an awesome time, I don't want to spoil too much though!

 

[Bambi-NY]

I'm a little late in joining but really enjoying your trip report and budget. Your pictures are great too!

 

[Echo queen]

Love your review.

 

[AAshleySEG]

I'm a little late in joining but really enjoying your trip report and budget. Your pictures are great too!

No problem!! I am just glad to have you joining in on the fun! I appreciate that you are enjoying the TR and the budgeting and the photos!! Hopefully I will have another post up pretty soon! We just got back from a weekend camping trip!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Love your review.

Thank you! I am glad you are enjoying the TR!!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Sunday, June 11, 2017 (Part Two) - On Main Street with the Philharmonic!

We had finished up with Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin and started walking to the hub while deciding what we wanted to do next. As we were checking the wait times of the attractions we spotted the Main Street Philharmonic! It was very lucky we happened to catch them just as they were starting their performance so we walked over and listened for a while!

Once they were finished, since it had no wait time at all, we made our way over to New Fantasyland and Under The Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid. I can still remember when this opened, as it wasn't too long ago, the line was so long, but I absolutely love the design of this queue line. They put in so many really cool details, not to mention the castle! Out of all of the "castles" at Magic Kingdom, I feel like this is the most overlooked one, but it is so detailed and fantastic!

Before you know it we were inside and listening to all of the great songs from the film. I have to admit it here, Little Mermaid is not one of my favorite Disney movies. I didn't grow up watching it like some of the others so I don't have any childhood nostalgia for it, I love all the songs, those were always something I knew when I was little, but the movie just isn't for me, it is really hard for me to watch it all the way through without losing interest. The attraction is really cool though, as well as the meet and greet with Ariel...although on another trip we met her and she asked us where we met, we told her we worked together at a restaurant and she said "I have heard it has a great seafood buffet" I was like NO Ariel...Noooooo, you live with all of the fishies!!! They say the most interesting things sometimes! Maybe it was Ursula posing as Ariel...in her head she was thinking Poor Unfortunate Souls...

It was now time for a little snack! Most people either love or hate Le Fou's Brew, but we really like it! It is always cool and refreshing so we decided to walk over to Gaston's Tavern and get one. When we made it inside to order we saw that they now had Macarons in a few different flavors so we ordered a set of those as well. I think the flavors were Chocolate, Coffee, and Vanilla that we got in our trio. Next time we will try the other ones as well!

Our consensus was that we really enjoyed them. It was a nice small snack to get us through until lunch, plus we got to sit inside and cool off for a bit with our brew. It wasn't too hot outside, but we had been walking around so it was nice to relax inside, there were hardly any people inside too which was nice!

Out third and final fast pass of the original three was just about coming up, it was at 11:45 for Jungle Cruise so we finished our snacks and headed in that direction. You guys all know my magic band, fast pass game now, so as soon as we scanned our bands to get on Jungle Cruise, I made another fast pass for 1:40 over on Haunted Mansion. That was great because it was around lunch time now and we could make our way over to Columbia Harbor House for lunch, and hopefully when we were finished it would be time for our Haunted Mansion ride!

For lunch today, I ordered the Lobster Roll with Chips and Jeremy got the Fried Shrimp with Fries. We did go halfsies on each though, it is what we do a lot of the time, that way we each get to try other things. They were both really good! Highly recommend going there is you like seafood. There was a bunch of huge chunks of lobster in the roll and the shrimp was nice and crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside! Definitely a good choice!

Once we were done with lunch we had about 20 minutes or so until our fast pass at Haunted Mansion, we checked the app and noticed that Philharmagic had a super short wait time, we were really close to it so we decided to do that . In less than 10 minutes we were already getting seated in the theater for the show! It was also perfect timing because once it was over we got to Haunted Mansion precisely at 1:40! We scanned our Magic Bands and walked in, while walking through the fast pass queue I made our next one for It's A Small World 10 minutes from now at 1:50 pm. Jeremy loves Haunted Mansion, it is another one that he must ride pretty much every time we come here. I ride it for him because it is not really one of my favorites, I know blasphemy right...haha! So we rode Haunted Mansion and made our way over to It's A Small World, which I love, it was lucky that it was so close too, we didn't have to walk very far.

After our boat ride, we decided it was about time to head back to the resort for our afternoon break. It was pretty good too, because it looked like some clouds were starting to roll in, this way we should beat them out. Before we left, we walked over to Frontierland Station to ride our beloved Walt Disney World Railroad around to the Main Street Station. After that relaxing breezy ride, we walked down and caught the bus back to Saratoga Springs. We were back at the resort by 3:15 pm to relax for a bit until the rain stopped, we had made a fastpass for Buzz Lightyear early evening.

So if you were counting, here is the recap for the first part of the day! We did 13 attractions plus breakfast, lunch, and snack stop, and listened to the Main Street Philharmonic all before 2:30 pm. Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, Mad Tea Party, Barnstormer, Dumbo, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, Journey of the Little Mermaid, Jungle Cruise, Mickey's Philharmagic, Haunted Mansion, It's A Small World, and the Walt Disney World Railroad! I wonder what we will be able to do when we come back later this afternoon!!

​

 

[Teetah]

Sunday, June 11, 2017 - Who is a Cosmic Commando?

This morning I woke up at around 7:00 am and started getting ready! Today, we were headed to the Magic Kingdom and there were a few things we were really excited about doing! By 8:05, we were out the door and only had to wait a few minutes for the bus. It was going to be our first experience with the new bag check security areas. It was a very long one. I think we must have gotten there at the worst possible time. I feel like they need separate security lines like they have at the airport for experienced travelers...the ones who know how to go through security. If we happen to have bags and I did this morning, I have every pocket unzipped, mine is a cross body, so I have it off of my person and ready to hand over and it literally takes like less than 10 seconds, for them to check it and I am back ready to go...I always get stuck behind people who I am assuming have never been before and even though the cast members are constantly saying, have your bags open and off your body ready to be checked, they keep them on...with all of the zippers closed. Then they have bags inside their bags with closed zippers, then when they security starts going through their stuff, they always say...well that bag is just this...or this bag only has that in it..and get irritated when they open their things. Like I said...not meaning to rant, but when security takes like 30 minutes to get through...that may be a problem. Experienced Disney guest line...haha!!! They do have passholder lines which is good start!
​

I can't even handle people.

I don't think either of us do too well with spinning, which is why we normally don't ride this, or Dumbo, and never Astro Orbiter. Today we were feelin' froggy and so after this one we headed toward Storybook Circus to do a few things there!​

Tim doesn't have much of an issue, but I seem to the older I get. However, I REFUSE to skip the teacups!

Sunday, June 11, 2017 - Who is a Cosmic Commando?
​

Jeremy was ready this morning. After me winning 5 times yesterday at Toy Story Midway Mania he was determined to beat me on this one! So we got in our car and started shooting! I was ready and trying to shoot all of my marks I had learned over the years. Jeremy ended up with a score of 97,200...and I was a Cosmic Commando, with 890,100! I didn't manage to max out this time but there were still more rides of the day to try and get it!

​

[/QUOTE]

Once they were finished, since it had no wait time at all, we made our way over to New Fantasyland and Under The Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid. I can still remember when this opened, as it wasn't too long ago, the line was so long, but I absolutely love the design of this queue line. They put in so many really cool details, not to mention the castle! Out of all of the "castles" at Magic Kingdom, I feel like this is the most overlooked one, but it is so detailed and fantastic! ​

​

I 100% agree!!!

Before you know it we were inside and listening to all of the great songs from the film. I have to admit it here, Little Mermaid is not one of my favorite Disney movies. I didn't grow up watching it like some of the others so I don't have any childhood nostalgia for it, I love all the songs, those were always something I knew when I was little, but the movie just isn't for me, it is really hard for me to watch it all the way through without losing interest. The attraction is really cool though, as well as the meet and greet with Ariel...although on another trip we met her and she asked us where we met, we told her we worked together at a restaurant and she said "I have heard it has a great seafood buffet" I was like NO Ariel...Noooooo, you live with all of the fishies!!! They say the most interesting things sometimes! Maybe it was Ursula posing as Ariel...in her head she was thinking Poor Unfortunate Souls...

​

Oh man, The Little Mermaid is definitely in my top 5 Disney movies of all time. But, I really don't care for that ride. It's ok, but I feel like it is lacking and Ariel looks sort of weird through most of it....

It was now time for a little snack! Most people either love or hate Le Fou's Brew, but we really like it! It is always cool and refreshing so we decided to walk over to Gaston's Tavern and get one. When we made it inside to order we saw that they now had Macarons in a few different flavors so we ordered a set of those as well. I think the flavors were Chocolate, Coffee, and Vanilla that we got in our trio. Next time we will try the other ones as well!





Our consensus was that we really enjoyed them. It was a nice small snack to get us through until lunch, plus we got to sit inside and cool off for a bit with our brew. It wasn't too hot outside, but we had been walking around so it was nice to relax inside, there were hardly any people inside too which was nice!​

​

I'm a Le Fou's Brew hater.

I would try those macarons tho!

For lunch today, I ordered the Lobster Roll with Chips and Jeremy got the Fried Shrimp with Fries. We did go halfsies on each though, it is what we do a lot of the time, that way we each get to try other things. They were both really good! Highly recommend going there is you like seafood. There was a bunch of huge chunks of lobster in the roll and the shrimp was nice and crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside! Definitely a good choice!

​

I LOVE THAT LOBSTER ROLL!!! Columbia Harbor House is the best!!!

Once we were done with lunch we had about 20 minutes or so until our fast pass at Haunted Mansion, we checked the app and noticed that Philharmagic had a super short wait time, we were really close to it so we decided to do that . In less than 10 minutes we were already getting seated in the theater for the show! It was also perfect timing because once it was over we got to Haunted Mansion precisely at 1:40! We scanned our Magic Bands and walked in, while walking through the fast pass queue I made our next one for It's A Small World 10 minutes from now at 1:50 pm. Jeremy loves Haunted Mansion, it is another one that he must ride pretty much every time we come here. I ride it for him because it is not really one of my favorites, I know blasphemy right...haha! So we rode Haunted Mansion and made our way over to It's A Small World, which I love, it was lucky that it was so close too, we didn't have to walk very far.

After our boat ride, we decided it was about time to head back to the resort for our afternoon break. It was pretty good too, because it looked like some clouds were starting to roll in, this way we should beat them out. Before we left, we walked over to Frontierland Station to ride our beloved Walt Disney World Railroad around to the Main Street Station. After that relaxing breezy ride, we walked down and caught the bus back to Saratoga Springs. We were back at the resort by 3:15 pm to relax for a bit until the rain stopped, we had made a fastpass for Buzz Lightyear early evening.

So if you were counting, here is the recap for the first part of the day! We did 13 attractions plus breakfast, lunch, and snack stop, and listened to the Main Street Philharmonic all before 2:30 pm. Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, Mad Tea Party, Barnstormer, Dumbo, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, Journey of the Little Mermaid, Jungle Cruise, Mickey's Philharmagic, Haunted Mansion, It's A Small World, and the Walt Disney World Railroad! I wonder what we will be able to do when we come back later this afternoon!!
​

Such a great day so far - working out just perfectly!!!! And yet again, getting sooooo much accomplished!!!!