Trip Report (Sept. 11-22)- The Magic is Back!... ish! (The Trip Summation)

[Jabroniville]

The Cinderella & BATB windows on Main Street.

Showing this pic to my comic book-reading friends, the wire made them think that Green Arrow was here.

THE CASTLE SHOW AND THE ADVENTURE OF TRYING TO SEE TINKER BELL:
-So part of the big finale of the fireworks show is to see Tinker Bell fly from the castle over to Main Street/Tomorrowland- this is almost ALWAYS the biggest moment with the crowd, and last time, I overheard some people say they saw movement in the castle BEFORE Tink pops out, so I made it my mission to see it. Obviously she didn't light up until she was out of the castle, but WHEN? So I carefully spotted locations and kept an eye on the front of the castle, at the exact point the wire extends forth from it, in order to see it... and it only took me four tries, lol. Granted, I was also watching the fireworks, haha.

I can go into more detail each time, but:
1) I was too late to get a great view, then went to the bathroom and forgot about said mission until it was nearly too late- I was moving underneath a tree when she launched.
2) It was raining that night, creating fuzzy castle projections and Tink never came out at all. I should've checked that ahead of time cuz most of this was a bust.
3) Someone beside me (who'd been there for 20-30 minutes, mind you) literally decided to bail the SECOND BEFORE Tink came out, with her friend and her friend's stroller, so despite being there the whole time I had to shuffle over and watch where I was going, and thus still missed it!
4) FINALLY, on the fourth try, I got a spot on the bridge to Fantasyland, between two of the large trees, enabling me to catch a glimpse of it. Turns out she scoots free of the castle and hits about five feet out BEFORE lighting up the costume (you see her actually LUNGE forward), at which point most people end up seeing her. The side view makes this a lot more clear.

But yeah, the "Enchantment" show is... fine. People seem REALLY impressed by the fireworks (always "oohhhhhhhh..."-ing at the single "shooting star" one at the beginning) and the song is okay. "Happily Ever After" is considered the all-timer for a reason, though, and I remember seeing that 1-2 times on my 2019 trip and being astounded by it. I'm glad that one is coming back.

Another issue is you have to be RIGHT at the center to get a good view. On the bridges you can see the fireworks but the projections are invisible, and they don't bother to put good stuff on the sides of the castle. This leads to an absolutely huge jam in the middle of the area in front, clogging up space. They have a hundred CMs shuffling guests along to get them out of the way, and will block off certain areas. Naturally the good views are closer- Main Street is dead on but too far to see most stuff that well. If you want a good spot, you HAVE to camp or risk being that jerk who decides to push his way into a crowd in front of the people who actually tried to wait, ruining their time. Worse still are the people who stand in the huge crowd and try to signal their friends to come watch the show with them (duh- they can't push past to get to you even as you raise your umbrella up and down).

The projections here are fine, but it's part of the issue of a lot of Disney shows these days, where it's just a "Clip Show" of one thing after another. Some of it's just showing off their mapping skills as stuff hits the castle... and some things don't seem to have any real importance to the show beyond "Hey, this is a thing we made!" Toy Story in particular feels incredibly pointless with just an instrumental version of You Got A Friend In Me playing with trombones & tubas or whatever. It also starts out with some of the less popular and well-known "Pandemic Dead Zone" movies like Soul and Raya, then Pocahontas of all things gets a big instrumental bit, though shares space with Hercules.

Moana is oddly the main eventer of the whole deal with a LONG version of her key songs, and then we get a big Into the Unknown bit... which I think suffers, like the other songs do, of not being the actual version from the movie. You have access to IDINA MENZEL'S VOICE and instead you use two random no-name singers doing a harder rock version? Elsa features a bit on here, but not as much as you'd think- just her in her nightie doing a couple of movements while other characters scoot about the castle. Like, you'd think they'd also stick on the Show Yourself sequence with the Four Spirits turning her into the "Snow Queen" at last.

Overall it's fine, and it is certainly not a mistake that the movies starring minority characters get most of the spotlight here, but everyone loves Happily Ever After for a reason.

 

[Jabroniville]

"Drunk Elsa", the best Park merch I never buy.

THE MERCH I NEVER BUY:
-I always liked the "glass store" at the one end of Main Street... though I've never bought anything from here. I mean, everything's SO EXPENSIVE! And despite it being all very pricey stuff, a lot of the time the character depictions look like butt. A lot of "Eye Wonk" and other issues. And EXPENSIVE!

The wall at the candy store.

LATE NIGHT ON MAIN STREET:
-At park closing, I never actually LEAVE the parks- there's few better chances for "Park Ambiance" than to hang out on Main Street after dark. NOTHING feels more "Disney" than this, to me- nothing in Fantasyland, Adventureland or Frontierland. Just lots of crowded streets and crowded shops as the people who waited all day to buy stuff finally invade the stores. I broke my 2021 routine, which was to go to the Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor every single MK night. There, I got recognized the 4 times I did this by the staff, and it was a great "Magical CM Moment" kind of thing. This time around, I didn't see them- they might have gone or moved to other departments. I got a waffle-bowl once but generally ate elsewhere at this time.

Despite the great candy store being here, I almost never buy stuff from there- a lot of park snacks are a very bland kind of chocolate to me, and they just cake it over plainer materials to make the treats look larger. Yes I'm a candy snob, lol. I got something the first day, and I think cotton candy more than once, but that's about it. It's definitely one of the best-looking stores on property, though. The Emporium on the other side is one of the most epic Disney Stores ever, though, with the occasional bits of merch you'll only find here (oddly laid out and spread EVERYWHERE, so good luck finding it). There's a hat section (I went looking for the phone where you could hear conversations on Main Street, but never found it).

Sadly, one big chunk of Main Street was taken up by roadwork on the ground- this killed the "sounds of Main Street" section in that little alcove that usually had a stand or two, but mostly side entrances to other shops and a lot of ambient noise to make this look like a real place.

The "Disney Jail" YouTube video that recently dropped detailed what actually goes down in the upper sections here, which fascinates me. Various park VPs actually have their offices above these shops, while "Disney Jail" (just a few chairs and a desk with a computer) sits above the Gibson Girl- that's where they take thieves, drug-dealers and ruffians, giving them their lifetime bans and handing them over to the "real police".

 

[Jabroniville]

DAY THREE (MAGIC KINGDOM):
-Another fifteen-hour park day after the previous one! Unfortunately, today I made the cardinal mistake of forgetting my sunscreen. And of course had to wait for parades and the Magical Friendship Faire repeatedly through the day, so I just BAKED on this one. Like a pure, agonizing Florida sun just killing you from directly overhead. I would have brought a hat, but I didn't feel like lugging one around, nor dealing with the tanlines that happen when you have no hair and have to wear one. In retrospect, I might as well just do it next time because this is murder, lol. "But Jabroniville" you ask, "Why didn't you just buy sunscreen at the park?" Well, see, I was a dope and didn't want to pay the exorbitant fee, plus carry it around all day, just in case it rained or got cloudy at points.

I again saw the Magical Friendship Faire repeatedly, which is probably why I mega-tanned (in the way a lobster is tanned) this day. Thankfully I avoided the worst of the peeling- it took a few days and was more flaky than full death.

Today the Mine Train got a huge line immediately (I was a trifle bit behind getting in the line), so I bailed and went to Peter Pan instead- despite being old and infamous for its own line, I do enjoy this more than almost anything in the park- no dark rides bring you THIS CLOSE to stuff- the twirling movements and going from scene to scene makes it feel more immersive and "alive" than any of the other rides, and it has that great scene of shooting over London's streets. I like looking over the edge of the boat to see the tiny moving lights to indicate moving cars.

The neat castle decorations appearing all over on the projection platforms that are disguised as random castle bits in front of the big castle.

I tried to get a Lightning Lane pass for the Mine Train, but curiously found that Genie+ never worked for this ONCE- not during my entire trip in any park. Every single time, it would let me get all the way to trying to pay, then suddenly go "This has sold out" or whatever and make me go back to the beginning. The best theory Guest Relations could come up with was that I was on the park wifi... since I'm Canadian I couldn't just turn that off, so I was hooped. Thankfully a CM just gave me a free LL pass for this day for any attraction (at HS later I just paid for a Star Wars: ROTR one at the GR booth).

Tomorrowland by the PeopleMover.

The PeopleMover is fun as always- some great views of the parks and a great "quality of life" thing- it's a huge people-eater and gobbles up crowds that would otherwise be clogging up other stuff. Disneyland has been cursing removing its PM ever since. The narrator's voice is ridiculously soothing... though it occurs to me the poor shop people and stuff beneath the speakers can hear the same comments being uttered EVERY TEN SECONDS OR SO, which has to be annoying. Imagine here "Except for actual stars. Those are no longer sold" that often.

I don't remember the two horse guys.

So today I finally did many of the "things I'd missed last time" (two attempts at a COVID test in 2021 diminished my "afternoon time" in the parks), which included going to see the Country Bears show (it's kind of funny this is the only real thing involved on this one stretch of road on the way to Splash Mountain)- I actually missed the line that caused the host to say "Yes, folks, we only have high-class stuff on this show" and wanted to go back, but always had something else to do (... for the three additional days I was at this park. Yeah, I know). Turns out the line is "Mama, don’t whup little Buford/ Mama, don’t pound on his head/ Mama, don’t whup little Buford… I think you should shoot him instead."

I also did Tom Sawyer's Island and did the cave exploration, which... was fine. Though I THINK I went through all of it but it still felt a bit smaller than it was on past trips. Either they got rid of stuff or I'm just remembering wrong (or mixing it up with the Paris park's). I can't remember if they had that deep cavern or not this time around, or I missed it. I'm just big enough that I kept slamming into walls trying to get around . The fort on the other side of the bridge has more stuff than I remembered (I only remembered the sleeping guard, not the horses and horsemen), but I was still checking around corners trying to see if I was missing anyting. It'd only been three years since I was here, but I still doubted myself at times. Around this time (it was near-closing time for the Island) I saw the back end of one of the Cavalcade parades that happen later in the day (more on those later).

I caught one of the "Mickey Parades", which is just the Big Six (Mickey & friends, if you include Daisy).


Next up: Be Our Guest restaurant!

 

[Jabroniville]

The only decent picture of the interior I got- iPhones hate strong lighting.

BE OUR GUEST RESTAURANT:
-So 60 days before my trip, I checked the site and was surprised to see EVERY DAY of my trip had popped up, not just the immediate day ahead. Turns out your entire vacation's booking window opens up for every restaurant. No wonder people have issues booking these things if people with long vacations can book so far ahead. In my case, Cinderella's Royal Table AND this were both booked up all through supper! All they had was lunch, which to me wasn't QUITE ideal, but it's actually a kind of better thing for park travel, as you can get the heavy, time-consuming meal earlier when it's busier and then be more free for 6pm.

So BOG is my big go-to- I'd missed out in 2014 in favore of CRT, but every time thereafter I went here, as it's much nicer-looking and has better food. I remember not being too into the lamb that I had in 2019, and went with the filet mignon in 2021, but this time around I went with a weird pork cutlet thing, just to be different. But I STARTED with something truly weird... ESCARGOT.

Yeah, I ate a plate full of snails (the server told me it was brand-new to the menu and they were hearing good things about it). I always wonder who the first dude was to be like "Hey, I wonder what THESE things taste like?" looking at this horrifying, wriggly gastropod. But it's snooty French food and this place mimics a snooty French place, so what the hey? I mean, it was the appetizer- what did I care if it sucked? But it turns out that escargot is mostly about the sauce (in this case, a very green "herbed-garlic butter") and the meat is just the delivery system for it. So I read a website on "how to eat escargot" rapidly like a total pleb and had at 'er- pretty good stuff! Wayyyyy crunchier than I expected- I was expecting more like a mushroom (a tactile experience I despite, hence me never trying escargot before), but it's solid food.

Yes, those are PORK RINDS. On a meal that cost $65, lol.

The pork thing (pork tenderloin?) was interesting- it's 3-4 different ways of cooking pork, cut all small and fancy-like so you know you're in a class grub joint because they're little squares and someone probably measured this stuff. And it has PORK RINDS on it. Super-interesting! Like... fancy pork rinds, cuz they just fried up small bits of it at a time instead of giving you a bag of it. The dessert tray is different now- you no longer eat an effigy of Chip full of "the grey stuff"- you get a PILE of it in this chocolate-looking ring slab. Like, there's quite a bit of it.

The Chip design is now one of those "discs". Plus there's a macaron "hamburger" and one of those "chocolate things with nuts on it" which I wasn't that taken by.

Also my drink was rad- a blue slush with a glowing "ice cube" that reflected lights through the drink! And I got to keep the cube! It was decked out with the Nautilus and other 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea stuff. I was the envy of every child who walked by my table and marveled at my $12 slushy drink, going "I want that!". Because nothing says Disney like eating like a five-year old with limitless money.

The best pics of him I could get- I swear.

Another plus of this place: The BEAST comes to visit you! It was a meet & greet with PhotoPass in 2019, then he just kinda walked by once in a while last year, but this time he'll actually come up and greet you. All my pictures look like total butt since I can NOT figure out how to take pictures in here with an iPhone, much less of someone who's constantly moving, but he came up and I GOT TO SHAKE HIS PAW, YOU GUYS!!! Came right up to my table and looked me in the eye (probably the performer's forehead was pointing at me) and he shook my hand! When I was checking out the den (the dark room off to the side), trying to stay out of servers' ways, he actually came by again, noticed me, and put his paw on my shoulder in a "heya, man" kind of way, lol.

A primary issue with having lunch at a big restaurant is one I'd soon figure out... you miss a parade! And a Fantasy Faire or two! In fact, I actually left a bit earlier than I otherwise might have in order to catch the MFF again... though it was actually rather busy in the restaurant, to the point where I couldn't go up against the amazing "windows looking into the snowy courtyard", lest I disturb other diners. Too bad the tables are parked so close there. The side room was mostly empty and I took some pictures there (not that I didn't take a billion on my last two trips, of course...), and I checked out the Beast's Den as well. I'd kind of like to eat here at some point, though I don't know if they have single tables. And it's VERY packed in there, with a lot of servers bolting to available stations and moving trays around.

The only bad thing was I didn't see my old waiter- it was fun seeing him again in 2021 after my 2019 trip. Shorter Latino-looking guy.

 

[Jabroniville]

I did catch at least one performance of the parade. And probably 3-4 Magical Friendship Faires, lol. Enough to memorize the choreography and thus know the perfect times to wave to characters to get them to wave back!

This one is suspiciously good, but I swear it's actually off my phone camera, because I have the lamer pics surrounding it, lol.

See? The surrounding pictures!

I met Cinderella & Elena, probably twice each! And the Tiana & Rapunzel side, too.

And look- a PETER PAN sighting! The only wandering character in all the Parks! I've never actually seen him before, which was weird. He didn't really have a line- he just kind of bolted around and engaged with kids.

Almost a decent shot of the castle in the rain.

LATE NIGHT RAIN:
-So here the rain finally happened- and it POURED. Just flattening, pounding rain for a solid hour or so. Annoyingly, I couldn't find an outlet for my phone (my extra battery was already empty), and the families around me had gobbled up every available chair, so I had to eat my taco trio on a garbage can at Pecos Bill's. I moved around that and the adjacent Tortuga Tavern while the rain pounded down before finally getting sick of it and heading to I think the Fairytale Hall or something.

FIREWORKS (and the non-existant fairy):
This night was my second time seeing the fireworks show, and I wanted to see Tinker Bell come out of the castle... so of course it rained and rained and rained, lol. At first it merely delayed the show (though wouldn't cancel it- only if there's wind do they cancel it), but then about 9:17... it started up for 20 seconds and then the projections FROZE on the castle! Then they had to delay it again. A woman beside me, desperate to bring her friends over to her position (lifting an umbrella up and down to "signal" them in a crowded area) muttered that "this would be the perfect end to a terrible day" as I wonder who these people are that manage to have a crap time HERE of all places. A disappointment or two, sure, but like... LOOK at all this stuff!

Thankfully, the show started up again, and I had a GREAT position to view it, as the crowd had cleared out in the massive wait until it finally started after 9:30 at night... and I then realized that the projections look fuzzy and worse during the constant sprinkling rain, haha! Aaaaaaaaaaand then Tink didn't pop out at all near the end. Well, good thing it was a 15-hour park day, or I'd have been choked about blowing nearly an hour waiting around for all this. As it stood, it wasn't the BEST, but whatever.

 

[Jabroniville]

DAY FOUR (ANIMAL KINGDOM):
-So with my "Big Two" parks down, I set up for a day at Animal Kingdom! Granted, after two straight 15-hour days at Magic Kingdom I was like "UGH" about waking up at 6 in the freakin' morning and rope-dropping the Avatar ride, but the heck with it. Grabbed my energy drink and was off... rope-drop went off without a hitch, though I got on Flight of Passage so quickly I missed the floating Na'vi avatar floating in the room! The ride's still amazing, though. I got Genie+ again- not something I usually do at this park (which has only a few measly rides), but...

An obvious highlight: seeing the rhino up THIS close.

I bolt for Kilimanjaro Safaris- experience taught me that one gets busy quickly and never lets up, and the WiFi over there cuts out so the line is AWFUL. Thankfully A) there was not much of a line, and B) the WiFi works now! They somehow fixed it! The Safaris has gone down as something I do endlessly if I can- at least twice on each trip (though I think I managed only one last time)- this was why I grabbed G+, because otherwise the lines for this are DREADFUL, and this allows for repeated journeys, and it's often a very different experience each time. And this one REALLY paid off- between the three trips I managed that day (an early-morning, G+ and a rainy visit), I saw giraffes passing in front of the vehicle, elephants not too far away, and a ton of rhinoceros sightings. Those aren't that common, and this time there was a baby bustling back and forth while it's mom tried to control it. Lil' dude had the "scoots" something fierce and was just tearing all over the place.

One of the drivers mentioned the fact that the roars in The Lion King are all TIGER roars, "one of many ways Disney lies to you" or whatever he said XD.

Hippos!

THE OTHER STUFF:
-So I singled rider'd Expedition Everest this time around, and then found the Kali River Rapids (which were closed last year) with a really short wait. I must have FP'd this in the past because I do NOT remember this queue at all- I walked in there and was like "LOOK AT ALL THIS STUFF!" with giant tiger statues and all sorts of other cool stuff. The weird thing was this area was a total walk-on (my entire wait was because I was standing around taking pictures of this winding, incredible queue)... but when I checked by later, the line was 40-60 minutes! Like everyone had crammed onto every OTHER attraction in the park, leaving this until all that was done, finally leaving it with lines.

The Okapi! You don't find these in zoos very often. One of the most unique animals in the world.

I went on the African Trek next- a great series of enclosures, though I was starting to feel wiped out. Three coast-to-coast park days in a row, with about 42 hours in three days in the parks, and maybe four hours of sleep the night before, and I was like "dang...". So next to the building with the naked mole rat exhibit, I parked on a bench in the shade and just sat there for like 30 minutes. I wasn't QUITE asleep (a bit too much movement around you for that) but it was good enough to handle the rest of the day without issue- I just shut straight down on that spot. There's something magical about being able to veg out in a park with thousands of people surrounding you .

The mole rat room is cool, as always- I got a good view of them and a keeper was talking about how to take care of them. When I asked why this was the ONLY place I ever saw them, she pointed out the difficulties like how if you take one away for veterinary care, the others will reject it, as it no longer smells like them (they have to rub it in pee from the colony to make it smell "right"). I saw the Hidden Jafar (now a bit covered by plant matter), the gorillas (the baby is now toddler-ish- last year I saw him he was a big-headed lil' baby), and more.

I did the Maharajah Jungle Trek next. This is something I sometimes think of doing twice, but as always, ya just run out of time (especially doing the Safari repeatedly). The tiger pen remains an all-time zoo habitat- VERY big and sprawling, with great deatils throughout. Too bad there's only ever one tiger in here, it seems- they don't seem to split up the different areas.

The huge Neytiri is one of the coolest things found this close in any Disney shop... maybe the most risque, too! There are presumably good angles you can find for pictures of the floating rocks, but I couldn't find them this trip, haha.

I went back to Pandora once or twice, admiring the landscaping and went on the River Journey. Oddly the first time I went here in 2019 I managed to ride this three times with only a 40-minute wait one time... every other trip has been "once only" beacuse it's jam-packed now. The animatronic at the end is Disney's best for sure, though. Pandora itself looks great but manages to be a bit of a maze that the crowds don't help, so I often feel like I'm missing out on something that I accidetally skipped over. I also finally saw the "Three Handprints" of James Cameron, Jim Rhode (who built this park and Pandora) and the producer of Avatar whose name I'm too lazy to look up.

The handprints and initials.

Dinosaur! Which... I only do as a last kind of thing. The whole dino area looks really bad with all the stuff taken out, and this is SO far out of the way. I only went on it when the whole park was just ANNIHILATED by a torrential downpour. I ended up soaked to the skin again (one day I'll bother to actually bring one of those ponchos), drying off a tad in the queue, which I likely LL'd. I skipped most of the museum stuff here, so probably. The ride is full of rubbery, non-moving dinos- I think it's seen better days. The skeletons are really the hightlight of the area.

Kevin! Sadly I don't think the bird show is back yet.

Overall, I didn't eat fancy today- I had the... ribs, I think, from the African area's food court. Then at the Pandora area I went with the old standby- the rice/meat dish with the little jelly spheres in it. Honestly I only did Yak & Yeti once- in 2014. I liked it, but I never went back because it just seems to take a while.

This time around, I tried to enjoy the sights of the Africa area a little more. This is something that's easy to "miss" while criss-crossing this giant park, so I try to spend some time just appreciating the details in it, like the chintzy Mickey painting on the wall and how "fake weathered" everything is. I know I did bits of this last year as well, but it's always worth just living in it for a bit.

I THINK I did some of the animal exhibits around the Tree of Life, but not all of them. It's a very winding path and I think by the time I was getting around to it, stuff was roped off.

 

[Jabroniville]

Half hour of waiting and I think this was the best Pocahontas shot I got.

THE SAGA OF TRYING TO SEE BOAT CHARACTERS:
-So there's about 4 boats that drive by around the Tree of Life- each with a different set of characters. There's a Mickey one, a band one, a Carl one from Up!, and Pocahontas. I REALLY wanted to get a pic of Pocahontas (the only princess that's so hard to find; there's no meet & greet right now) but for whatever reason the boat was impossible to find. Nobody around seemed to know just when they all came out, and I think she skipped one, but I sat there for like 20-30 minutes waiting before she FINALLY arrived... and of course was too far away for a clear shot, haha. Naturally I realized she was on one of the MK parades a day later so this was pointless. But I managed to at least stand in the shade and try to tan the underside of my arms so the tops being beet-red from the sun wouldn't stand out so much.

Near the end of the day, it started raining- not that hard, but enough. The last trip I took on the Safaris was thanks to this, as the wait time seemed suspiciously short and I wasn't sure if they were running it... so I went over to check and they were like "Yeah, nobody ever comes on because they think it closes in the rain" so I got a trip with only three people in the truck! However, this makes things a LOT bumpier. I think all three of my Safari hosts were pretty good- they obviously relay a lot of the same information, but it was three very different trips each time- a true rarity and I think what keeps people coming back here.

I saw one of the last showings of the newly-returned Finding Nemo musical- one of the former Elena/parade performers I follow now does a side role in this show, after waiting for years post-COVID to re-enter the Disney family (I've found this is quite common). I missed the first song or two owing to poor timing but made it down. You have to re-tell the whole movie in a small handful of scenes, so it's more of a "you've seen it before, right?" experience, but okay enough. The puppets are really impressive, but I was never as taken with the songs (which are by the same duo who does all the Frozen stuff).

OVERALL:
-AK is such a weird park- in 2014, I called it "a mediocre theme park mixed with a mediocre zoo" and I still KIND OF hold to that, but it's now a bit more full of an assortment of things and has a few more attractions. It struggles with limited things still, though- resulting in an extraordinarily vast park with only a handful of rides, which means it has huge lines all the time and it's hard to criss-cross things to minimize that. I appreciate the scenery a lot more these days, though even then I feel I have to force myself to do it.

 

[Dotluvsdisney]

My hubby made me visit the crystal store on our last trip. This little guy is a mere $275,000!

 

[TEAMJACOB]

Has anybody ever witnessed anyone buying something in the crystal shop?

Enjoying your trip report.

 

[CeeCee101]

Has anybody ever witnessed anyone buying something in the crystal shop?

Enjoying your trip report.

I was given a Tink crystal from this store YEARS ago as a thank you for doing all the trip planning. Still have it and love it

 

[Jabroniville]

My hubby made me visit the crystal store on our last trip. This little guy is a mere $275,000!View attachment 716523

PPFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTT! A mere PITTANCE! And to think the plebians think that Disney is something only for the wealthy!

Has anybody ever witnessed anyone buying something in the crystal shop?

Enjoying your trip report.

Haha, I never have! Not once! Though I typically only hit those in the very end of the day so it's dark and the high-rollers have probably already gone to bed.

There are a handful of tiny things available there, at least. And things that "only" cost $1-300. My main issue is the porcelain stuff honestly looks worse than even basic dolls, because the medium itself can't handle the detail required. So you get all these odd faces or under-detailed hair.

 

[Jabroniville]

BACK TO EPCOT:
-So Animal Kingdom closes super-early these days once again, meaning I usually have hours left at the end of the day. Like I did last year, I ended up going back to Epcot, though unfortunately I left AK around 7-ish and then the buses took a THOUSAND YEARS to arrive for some reason. Seriously, it was like a 20-30 minute wait for anything to come to bring us to Epcot, so the night was rapidly winding down by the time I got there.

I mostly only got a single ride in on Frozen Ever After or two before I had to leave again. Thankfully this time Elsa actually sang the song- I was worried it'd still be down or something, haha.

In retrospect I should have gone to the Mexico Pavilion or something, too, but time was of the essence.

Next Up: So now I'm torn as to whether to update on Meet & Greets (which happened on various days) or go right to Hollywood Studios, haha.

 

[David G Farr]

Impressive trip report. I’ve tried and failed to do trip reports previously. Your details are amazing! I don’t know how you wear long pants in September. I’m from southeastern USA so I’m used to Florida weather and couldn’t imagine wearing jeans in Florida in September. I went with my family this past March and it was 80ish and a lady from Canada who was in line behind me was complaining about how hot it was. I just chuckled and told her that she hasn’t seen hot southern weather yet.

 

[CeeCee101]

Impressive trip report. I’ve tried and failed to do trip reports previously. Your details are amazing! I don’t know how you wear long pants in September. I’m from southeastern USA so I’m used to Florida weather and couldn’t imagine wearing jeans in Florida in September. I went with my family this past March and it was 80ish and a lady from Canada who was in line behind me was complaining about how hot it was. I just chuckled and told her that she hasn’t seen hot southern weather yet.

I’m fretting because I am going next week from the desert SW and it will be 70s which is def colder weather for us.

anyway great TR, since I am going next week I would love HS next but I enjoy your TRs so whatever works for you.

 

[Jabroniville]

Impressive trip report. I’ve tried and failed to do trip reports previously. Your details are amazing! I don’t know how you wear long pants in September. I’m from southeastern USA so I’m used to Florida weather and couldn’t imagine wearing jeans in Florida in September. I went with my family this past March and it was 80ish and a lady from Canada who was in line behind me was complaining about how hot it was. I just chuckled and told her that she hasn’t seen hot southern weather yet.

haha, that's funny- honestly, I didn't even think about proper pants this time around. I know people have suggested I wear shorts when I announced trips, but this time I forgot about it entirely. I've never been a "shorts guy" and don't even know what's "fashionable", and didn't want to wear what I call a "Tourist Uniform" here so didn't even think about it. Though I guess my calves are the only part of my body with any serious muscle tone to them, so it wouldn't have been so bad... except being Canadian my legs are usually so white they're transparent!

I didn't even realize jeans would make it worse- mine are pretty airy I guess because it was usually my upper body that was an apocalyptic sweat-hole during all my Disney trips.

 

[Jabroniville]

DAY FIVE (HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS):
-To the Studios!! This one is a bit of a varied park for me- in 2014 I found myself loving it a lot... in 2019 I actually found it very boring, having done most everything the first time. But then they added Galaxy's Edge and it became a proper "full day park" again. My Frozenmania still makes this one a must-do for the Frozen Singalong, though this time I probably overdid that one due to being tired, lol. Four jam-packed days in a row had left me feeling like just sitting around for once, and I never quite got as many good shots as I wanted of the Singalong.

GALAXY'S EDGE:
-I rope-dropped again this day, and thankfully my "Do Rise of the Resistance immediately" plan WORKED this time- last year I tried that, but it broke and was down for three hours, resulting in me wasting all that time for nothing. This day, it was a straight walk-on through the main queue for Rise, which continues to be great. Sadly I never truly get "wowed" by the full Stormtrooper Room because I think I saw it in pictures or short videos before I went to the attraction (the Disney Food Blog, for example, often shows the room during their daily videos), but overall it's hard to beat this thing. Sending you through multiple queues, CMs "in character" and more, it's great. In the Stormtrooper Room, everyone taking pictures resulted in one guy spouting "Move along people; there will be plenty of time to document your FAILURE later".

I was again unable to access the "Individual LL" part of the app- NOTHING would work. I eventually had to go to a CM table outside Galaxy's Edge (for ambiance, none are actually within that region) and I was able to apy for a ride in the afternoon. And miracle of miracles, at the very end of the night, I went in AGAIN and was able to walk right in! So maybe 20 minutes of waiting combined and I rode Rise THREE TIMES in one day! Not bad!

The best one was maybe the middle one, where I heard the Dark Order CM holler something about bags to the people at the front of the line, then came over to me. And he promptly did this LONG sigh, lowered his head, and went "I JUST TOLD EVERYONE to keep their bags and other items at their waist!". Not having heard him that time, I dropped my side-satchel off my shoulder and went "I'M SORRY." "You SHOULD be" he muttered as he walked off. "I want HIS job" a guy beside me said as he went away.

Some features are said to not work anymore- I realize now that the cannons now do NOT fire when you move between them- you hear the "Boom!" sound but they don't actually move anymore. There's so many moving parts to this it's inevitable that some stuff wouldn't work, but it's strange that an attraction so new would still have things that aren't operational anymore. Still better than Disneyland's version, which has a LOT of things missing (the security droid won't move there, I here). However, the Droid Shop's conveyor belt above you no longer works, either, and when I asked a CM about it, they said it hadn't been operational for a bit. So THAT's also broken, which really alters the "life" of the attraction/shop, as it resulted in a lot of chaotic movement that's now static.

Galaxy's Edge itself is still cool, but felt a bit more lifeless this time, maybe? I saw some Stormtroopers moving about and questioning people, but not as much from Kylo Ren or the other characters- I guess I just missed them a lot (I only came here 2-3 times maybe, and was usually just moving throught these areas). I still feel like there should be more to DO, though. I went on Smugger's Run a couple of times, and got my best-ever rating as an Engineer- the second-highest. Granted that's the one they stick you in if you're late or a Single Rider, but still.

My... meat and potatoes thing! And whatever this pink drink was! I liked all of this! oh wait, my receipt says it was Moof Juice and this thing was beef with yuca root! Woo, I'm a food-blogger now!

This time around, I actually ate in the quick service lounge, which has some good creature heads and stuff as decor! I think last time I figured this for an actual restaurant and didn't go in (it's blocked by doors so you can't see in most of the time). Quality food, at the usual exorbitant prices! The other places here are quite cool-looking but the food isn't to my liking- I love the robot moving the hideous roasting creature around (and this part actually worked better this time around).

I also finally saw the "Baby Millennium Falcon" in the real Falcon- it's on the underside near a pipe, though it's almost impossible to make out details at that distance, or take a good picture. I bought a die-cast Falcon as my lone souvenir of the place.

 

[Jabroniville]

See, it's only via looking at my pictures that I realize this was at least two different Elsas, haha.

THE FROZEN SINGALONG:
-So "Karaoke but with Frozen and some weird hosts telling you a quick version of the story" continues! And the theater is packed almost every single time, so it's still popular! Like I said, I was pretty wiped out today, so I'd often do a ride or two, then pop back to this- thankfully, the WiFi NOW WORKS in the theater! This was a major nuisance in previous years, as it'd cut out and I'd just have to sit there instead of checking Lightning Lanes or whatever. But yes, I did this four times in one day because I'm a weirdo.

I noted in 2021 that it'd been long enough since I'd seen Frozen that I'd actually forgotten how good the soundtrack really WAS, but now I was more used to it again. Humorously, this still keeps up to the original's continuity- there have been no updates at all, so Anna is still identified as the "Princess" and is playing this obvious second-fiddle role. I still love her imitation of Elsa's magic ("PEW! PEW!"). Eric & Aria are still the names of the hosts, and I saw the standard "different actors on later shows". The same pair in the morning and a different pair in the afternoon, though I'm not sure if the other performers swapped out. Elsa is wearing enough gear that she can easily "swap" between performances and I wouldn't know it, especially as she's only in at the very end. It's kinda funny they do the movie version of "Let It Go" and then do it AGAIN with a live singer at the very end, with "snoap" (soap made to look like snow) falling around.

You can hear the "PEW PEW PEW!" in Anna's voice with this one.

The first time, I was able to sit at the very front because nobody else was there, but in later shows I was stuck 2-3 rows back- I got VERY good at entering the theater at the right time to sit dead center, at least... this show is a very, very peculiar one for the fact that early entries are punished because they have to go all the way to the end of the row. Nobody WANTS to do this because the far left is a crappy view, so it ends up being a struggle between the guests and the CMs in attendance going "go all the way to the end of the row, please!". So I started waiting for a while until going in, thus hitting a pretty good center position- in past visits I typically entered too soon first, and then "corrected" for the second show.

Anna is such an unfortunate also-ran in Frozen-themed stuff at the parks since Elsa is such a more popular character, but I feel they make up for it by letting the performers just totally goof off in a way other Princess face characters can't. You'll never see CINDERELLA doing this.

Eric & Aria's repartee is still very fun- Aria's ridiculous thirst for Hans is always amusing, and will change to be more topical apparently, as last year she was "flossing" while looking at his picture, and then this year she was singing "My Boo" at him. They’ve mostly cut out her drooling over Kristoff and now it’s both hosts teasing him but only going with Anna because he was in love with her and him trying to deflect or deny that rather than fend off Aria's advances. It's interesting how sometimes they'll add in jokes, or drop them- other things have the same jokes, even between different performers. Seems like there's bits of improv, or just things they do to shake things up and keep in spontaneous. Eric only once called out the one oddly smiling guy in the scene where Elsa horrifies the townspeople with her sorcery (in 2019 he went "Except this guy- he's oddly into it").

Elsa's entrance.

One interesting thing is the whole ending has been completely changed- In prior trips, they always RAPIDLY re-told the ending, thus confusing Aria as they charge through all the plot twists because they're running out of time. Now they just say Olaf did the saving by himself! Elsa now walks in and goes "The ending seemed a little different".

The first time I saw the show in 2019 it was even MORE different, with a male narrator making these completely insane faces during "Love is an Open Door" just going wild pantomiming "DOOOO-OOOOORRRRR!". The only problem this time was that Elsa never ended up waving to me- I got everyone else BUT her, lol. Four times! She's probably trained to focus in on the kids and not weird adults, lol.

 

[Jabroniville]

TOY STORY LAND:
-This whole area is such a stopgap for me, haha. There's two good things here but I often just barrel through and hit the attractions I want. This time I hit the standby queue for Slinky Dog, as it wasn't SO bad and I got to the shaded part right away. It was by far the longest wait of the day, though, with a 30-ish minute wait. The queue has some stuff in it, but I mostly wiped out my phone's battery supply waiting. The attraction isn't so thrilling but looks nice, and I managed a later trip at night, probably using LL. I also LL'd the Midway Mania ride, doing mostly okay- I'm never quite as good at this one as I've never ridden it enough to learn all the tricks. And the lines are too long to bother doing it more than once per day.

I've only done the Saucers once, in 2019 (when I had a bad batch of FPs this day because I swapped days too late to get the good stuff)- it's just a long enough wait to be avoided any other time, and now there's WAY too much big stuff that requires LLs to skip lines to bother using one for this attraction. I did manage to use this as a quick way to get to Galaxy's Edge a time or two- it's kind of funny because this area is actually REALLY SMALL when you look at it- the road in and out is bigger than the actual "land", which is just three attractions squished together.

OTHER STUFF:
-I had considered doing the Beauty and the Beast show, but it's always timed very poorly here- you'd end up missing TWO Frozen performances in the meantime, and it has fewer performances overall (once in 2019 I missed it entirely because I could only hit the last one, and it was cancelled last minute). And it's a pretty chintzy, dated-looking show to be honest, with some barebones versions of the big songs and a rapid retelling of the story (one problematic thing is shortening the Belle/Beast story wrecks the whole narrative because they just fall in love outta nowhere!).

Later at night, I finally did the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror- a great attraction, but this one had an issue. I LL'd it, but my whole group got stuck! So it created a funny thing where we went up the elevator, we saw the stuff move around... and then we just sat there. Then went back down. Got told repeatedly to remain seated, etc. and a few newbie riders were like "uhhhhhh what?" and confusion reigned for a while. And it got even more bizarre because the dude beside me was LIVE-BLOGGING with his camera pointed at him and everything, communicating to all his YouTube followers ("They're all wondering why nobody here is panicking" he joked) and everyone chatted each other up, talking to the YouTube guy and my neighbors talking to me about stuff. The people next to me were quite nice, asking about what the ride had in store and if it was too crazy ("I won't grab your hand, I swear!" or apologizing if she bogarted my handrail or something, lol), and even asked "Are you doing Rock 'n' Rollercoaster after this?"- I was curious why they'd ask that, thinking they wanted me to join them or something- a friend suggested "Maybe they want to harvest your organs". Alas, I had a Lightning Lane for Slinky Dog at night so I'll never know! Afterwards, they made an untoward remark about the effects the Tower would have on the female anatomy that I CANNOT repeat here, and we were on our way!

I've heard that the original Star Wars ride here is still lined up a lot, but I never ONCE saw it over 5 minutes! This time I actually rode it, and finally didn't get the Gungan scene or things like that. It was all New Trilogy stuff I believe. Kylo Ren is now the one who stops you and tries to prevent you from leaving. One scene was the new "Not Hoth" planet with the white sand turning red when it's touched.

Sadly because of the various lineups and my Frozen dealie I had to skip "One Man's Dream", but to be fair it hasn't changed much and all I really liked anymore was the various miniaturized mock-ups of the parks and attractions near the end. It's a good historical tour, though- it was honestly the highlight of my 2014 trip to this park.

I went and saw the Muppets thing- I think I missed this in 2021 unfortunately, and it's too bad because it's a funny show. Lots of sight gags, and WAY more interactive theatrical stuff than before, with various puppets shooting up all over the place, Statler and Waldorf snarking on everything live, and even a live appearance by Sweetums! There's even a key under the mat that I never found before- it's announced via a piece of paper at the desk here, but I never read that until it was mentioned in a "Disney Easter Eggs" site. And there it is! It's chained to the floor so you can't grab it, but the mat is easily lifted off.

My eating at the Studios is always my least interesting- I did the Star Wars one and that's almost it... my old standby was the ship diner on Echo Lake, which usually has good quick service... but the menu had changed! There were some "crab fries" or whatever, and I was like "Ooh crab!" but sadly I misread what the deal was, and instead it was like... crinkle fries with DIP that was meat-oriented. So I paid like 16 bucks for basically a fancy fry meal. What a waste! I've always wanted to try one of the other diners here, but they're always a no-go- I never book one ahead of time, and day-of they are IMPOSSIBLE to get. I should probably just decide ahead of time where I want to go, but I kinda liked making "day-of" reservations once in a while. But I'll never get to see the Prime Time Cafe or things like that at this rate. I haven't even been to the Sci-Fi Diner since 2014!

THE STUDIOS OVERALL:
-I'm always on the fence with this place- there's so many freakin' attractions here I can never do them all in one day anymore. Which by definition should make it a "plus", but I'm never fully satisfied after a day here. I love the Frozen Singalong but I do find the odd placement of its showings means I miss other shows if I do them. I chose to visit the shows repeatedly but of course that prevents some other things. And the food ends up disappointing me because it's so hard to find a good reservation.

 

[igrsod]

"day-of" reservations once in a while.

On my last trip, my DH would desert me most days, as he had to "work" while on vacation (I honestly didn't mind). When he unexpected had to leave, I would quickly check the app for day of reservations for lunch for 1. I was able to snag a reservation both times... once at MK and the other at HS. It was nice to have a sit down meal in the middle of the day by myself. The servers both times were so sweet and chatted with me quite a bit. Not sure if you have tried this, but it worked for me.

 

[Jabroniville]

On my last trip, my DH would desert me most days, as he had to "work" while on vacation (I honestly didn't mind). When he unexpected had to leave, I would quickly check the app for day of reservations for lunch for 1. I was able to snag a reservation both times... once at MK and the other at HS. It was nice to have a sit down meal in the middle of the day by myself. The servers both times were so sweet and chatted with me quite a bit. Not sure if you have tried this, but it worked for me.

That's cool- I've managed short reservations before (last year I was able to snag dinner at Be Our Guest the night before!), but there was no dice this time- every time I checked there was nothing. Thankfully this place has a lot of quick-dining options but NOPE to sitting down.

Next Up: Character Meet & Greets and my Third Day at the Magic Kingdom!