UPDATED 8/29: Eat ALL the Things! - A Disney Trip Report (11/27-12/9/20)

[fabfemmeboy]

H’okay, so. After hanging around on the Boards off and on for close to a decade now, visiting every Disney Park (except technically one gate of one park), and putting together a few zillion scrapbooks of trip pictures, it finally occurred to me that I should write a trip report.

(Or, more accurately, as I was retelling him someone else’s trip adventures, my partner N pointed out “You should write ones for our trips.” So here goes.)

Introductions first:



I’m K, aka fabfemmeboy, a 30-something-year-old gay man originally from Ohio but now calling the Bay Area of California home. I’m a family law attorney by day, drag designer/seamster/novice tailor by night, and all-around geek who would travel constantly if that were an option. Oh - and I use an electric wheelchair for a medical condition that 14 years’ worth of specialists still can’t diagnose.
(And this is a very old picture, but it's one of the few I hate less of myself!)

Favourite park: Disneyland for economy of favourite rides; Shanghai for unique experiences.
Favourite ride: Tron! Other favourites include FOP, BTMRR, and Star Tours.
Favourite park snack: Dole Whip.
Favourite curse word-...sorry, wrong questionnaire.

Who was with me on this adventure? Just N, my partner in all senses of the word and the guy I’ve been married to for 12 years. He’s also 30-something (I’m older by 10 weeks and he doesn’t let me forget it!), originally from the Bay Area and LA (ah, divorce) and a total Disneyland snob. He’s a full-time uni student studying human bio and Latino studies but is probably focusing on genetics and/or epigenetics when this degree is done. A definite nerd, which is part of why I love him, and Disney tends to bring out his inner 4-year-old.


Here he is a couple years ago testing his fancy-schmancy hiking backpack by stuffing it full of books and walking around our neighbourhood playing Pokemon Go. Which sums him up well.

Favourite park: ...okay, so I asked him this question and he refused to pick just one. He stated that Anaheim should count as one park, because that’s the size it is and you can hop freely between the two just across the esplanade, so if EPCOT is all one park then so is the Disneyland complex, “and it’s basically perfect that way.”
Favourite ride: “Tron but only because I can’t pick between Space Mountain in Anaheim and Haunted Mansion.”
Favourite park snack: “Dole Whip for all-year but the surprise cupcake thing for seasonal.” (By which he means the Twice Upon a Cupcake at MK which was AMAZING)

Ok, fine, and here's both of us together like 10 years, 150 pounds, and a new set of teeth ago!




So now that you have the vital statistics on us, the stats for the trip!

Dates: Friday, November 27 - Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Where: Coronado Springs Resort (a first for us)
What: 7 park days plus the Orlando Informer Meet-Up at Universal
Why: Because I was going to go crazy if I couldn’t get out of the house!

When Covid hit, my office went remote, as did N’s school. Both of us quite enjoyed this change, as we’re kind of antisocial and hate sticking to a “normal schedule” anyway. No problems with missing friends or going out or things like that, but it turns out I start to go a little batty if I don’t have something to look forward to and mark time by. We had to cancel a May trip to London, we couldn’t go on our annual family trip with my parents (because no way were we flying to Tennessee in August to hang out maskless with my immunocompromised father!), we planned and then had to cancel a road trip up the West Coast in October because of fires, and I was starting to lose my mind.

N was less sure. The idea of flying worried him more than the idea of the parks themselves, but he reluctantly agreed for sake of my sanity. In the end, some 6 months later, I can say he had a good time but would have enjoyed it more had his anxiety not been so intense because of everything else going on.

And, as it turned out, he discovered his new favourite thing: EPCOT food festivals!

 

[fabfemmeboy]

Table of Contents​

Day 0: This Used To Be Easier When We Lived On The East Coast!
Day 1: Is that a "Hidden Mickey" or just...Mickey?
Day 2: Around the World in 80,000 Calories
Day 3: RISE and Shine!
Day 4: Laziness and Bread
Day 5: Wait - There’s a LINE?
Day 5, Part 2: They See me Rollin’...
Day 6: “It’s like Soarin’ on a Tron bike, you’ll be fine!”
Day 7: The Great Milkshake Search
Day 8:
Day 9:
Day 10:
Day 11:
Day 12:

 

[cajunfan]

Can't wait to read all about it! Especially if there is lots of FOOD! lol!

 

[fabfemmeboy]

As I went to post this and add in my photos, disaster struck: my pictures were GONE! This was one of the only days for which I had pictures on my phone, and it decided to auto-back-up everything recently and now I can't find them. I spent 3 hours trying to figure out where they went, and all I can find are the things that were auto-backed-up a year ago. Which means that, for this post and this post only, I'll be using photos from the internet instead of my own. There were only like 3 anyway. Still - grr! what a way to begin a trip report...and oddly, it fits with how the trip itself began!

Day 0: This Used To Be Easier When We Lived On The East Coast!
(Or, Getting to Florida During a Pandemic)

The day after Thanksgiving, still full of pie and kind of hoarse from the 6-hour Zoom dinner with my parents (in Ohio) and brother/sister-in-law (in Seattle), we woke up around 8 to finish packing and get ready to go. For some reason, no matter how many times I plan what we’re taking and where it will fit in each of the bags, I always have more stuff than I have room for. I don’t know how this is possible - I make lists! But surely enough, the bags wouldn’t zip closed. So out went the swim suits, the flip flops, some snacks, the waffle maker…

...ok, when I type it like that, I may see why the bags were too full…

(There had been so many issues with the Mickey waffles lately because of the change in mix, and I knew we would have a number of easier or later-start days, and it wasn’t clear how much would be open at Coronado Springs while we were there, and...yeah, it made sense in my head at the time, but looking back I was being ridiculous!)

One of the other things that made packing interesting was that I had a new set of luggage, specially designed to roll with a wheelchair! They have a special hook behind the handle that lets them clamp onto the back bar of the wheelchair, plus wheels that roll in all directions to follow the chair easily, AND the three pieces (checked bag, carry-on bag, and backpack) all clip together in any configuration. So handy. However, I hadn’t actually tried using all three together before, and it was...a bit unwieldy. Especially when unclipping the bags from one another to get into or out of each mode of transportation.

So like this, but with the third bag clipped between the checked duffle and the backpack.

(Still much better than trying to deal with luggage that doesn’t hook onto the chair, though!)

We had pre-ordered a Lyft for but switched it to Lyft-XL when we saw how much stuff we had, which was the right call (Thanks, N!). We headed out to the curb to wait for the driver, who was right on time. Stuff loaded into the back of the SUV, we piled into the back seat and realized two horrible things:

1. N’s tablet wouldn’t recognize the microSD where he keeps basically everything; and
2. Our driver was a nose-peeker

​

The drive to SFO was a quick 35-ish minutes thanks to the nonexistent traffic, and we arrived between 9:30 and 10. Our driver dropped us off at the wrong terminal, so we hopped on the AirTrain, realizing only then how easy it was to accidentally knock my three overstuffed bags loose from my chair AND how poorly they all fit in an elevator. Oy. But we made it, checked in the largest bag, whizzed through TSA (I love precheck), and were to our gate about an hour ahead of our 11:35 departure.

It was weird to see how deserted the terminal was - SFO is a major airport and usually pretty crowded no matter what time of day you fly. This was downright eerie, especially how few people were in the gate area until about 5 minutes before boarding. A few people were trying to eat before boarding, all kind of lowering the mask and scurrying to shove food into their cheeks like squirrels rather than leaving the mask down/off too long - myself included. Everyone sat as far apart as they could and generally had great “Covid etiquette,” which reassured me a little.

We boarded on-time and had an uneventful first leg of our flight. At the time, Delta was still blocking middle seats so we had a half-row to ourselves, and everyone around us was good about their masks, so it wasn’t too bad.

Then we landed in Minneapolis. Or, as N put it, “I understand why the midwest is a disease hot-spot”

The difference between Minnesota and California was night and day. People were crowded together everywhere so we couldn’t find a place to sit or even stand that wasn’t within 3 feet of others, let alone 6. There was simply nowhere to go to get away from people but still be able to hear boarding announcements. Then I made the mistake of trying to go get dinner, where I was surrounded by nose-peekers or people just wearing their masks as chin-hammocks. The idea of standing ON the “please stand here” markers was apparently foreign to them, and everyone seemed to crowd me no matter where I tried to wait.

It was about this time that both of us wondered why in the world I had dragged us into this cesspit of human disease. Unfortunately there wasn’t anything we could do about it at that point. The options were to find a way to book us a flight home - meaning more time in this airport - or soldier on to Orlando.

The layover should have been plenty of time to get food, but with the crowds most of us were trying to shove food into our mouths after we boarded the airplane. Both we and the family behind us looked guilty about it, but there was just no other option.

We finally (not soon enough) landed at MCO at 10:55 pm. At least this airport was pretty empty, especially since we can’t dash off the plane because we have to wait for my chair to come up from the gate-check hold. We were one of only two families in our Fake-o-rail car, and then we headed quickly for our destination:

​

The Hyatt MCO!

Yes, rather than dealing with the Magical Express and checking in after midnight, we opted to stay at the airport and head to the resort in the morning. A great plan, except for a few things:

1. All the food options were closed by the time we arrived, except for room service, which wasn’t offering anything we could eat;
2. None of the windows in the hotel opened, so we couldn’t air out the room at all;
3. N’s panic level was through the roof by this point, which left him unable to calm down and get some rest;
4. Once again, I was stunned by how little some people seemed to understand what we had been practicing for nearly a year. People just jumping onto the elevator with me, folks crowding everywhere...had they been in a coma for a year? Was that why they didn’t know these basic rules?

I got the checked bag and went back upstairs, and N and I calmed ourselves a little by trying various snacks from our Yum Box. This is a monthly subscription box that has treats/snacks from a different country each month, and we hadn’t finished Italy before we left home. A few tasty treats - and one absolutely horrible ‘omg what IS this?’ kind of treat - later, we had calmed down a little bit, at least enough to fall asleep. But at the end of the first night, I was definitely wondering if I had been an idiot and just signed our death certificates.

 

[cajunfan]

Wow! I was not very tolerant of "crowders" before Covid, but that would have given me the heebee jeebees at the airport. More please! (As you can see I am also not a patient person )

 

[fabfemmeboy]

Day 1: Is That Hidden Mickey, Or Just a Mickey?​

Knowing that our room probably wouldn’t be ready until midday or later, we slept in for awhile and then kind of laid-in for longer. I think we finally really got up around 10, took showers, and got set up for the day.

Oh, and put on our first set of ensembles:

The dates for this potential trip had changed a few times; originally (pre-pandemic) we had thought about September, then October for weather, then pushed back to December for better weather and more time to see how transmission rates were going at parks and on planes, etc. So instead of planning to Disney-bound, which we had done on our previous trip, I opted for themed shirts. And, of course, the shirts needed masks to go with them. And ears, which clip to a variety of hats (much more comfortable than headbands pressing against my glasses, and they take up less room and are harder to ruin in a packed suitcase). So each day had a tshirt and mask for each of us specifically picked for the day, plus ears pulled from the bag of like 15 pair of options. Because I am a nerd.

Day 1: Mickey Mouse Club (N) and frustrated Donald (me), complete with cursing mask!

We checked out right about 11 and headed across the airport and down to the DME line. The airport was still surprisingly empty considering it was the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, and the DME area was practically a ghost town. Good news for us - it meant almost no waiting! We boarded within 5 minutes or so, waited less than 15 minutes for a few other families to board, and then were on our way. CSR was the first stop.

Here was where one of the weirdest and least-Covid-friendly portions of the trip began:

The driver waited until everyone was off the bus, then got off and began pulling out individual bags. He wanted each person to collect their bag before he pulled out the next one. So all of us were standing around in a tight circle, going forward to get bags one at a time in the middle of the group, and then re-taking our place in the circle while he pulled the rest of our bags. There was no way to hang back and wait until all your bags were out before making a single trip forward, and people kept getting closer and closer as they wanted to get their bags and get out of there. Why in the world would that be the “best” set-up?

Anyway. We got our bags, took them to guest services as we hadn’t gotten a room-ready text yet, and headed into the lobby at Grand Destino Tower. Holy cow was it gorgeous!

We spent easily close to an hour taking pictures, because there were just so many cool things to see, then decided to head out in search of food because it was definitely lunch-time by then. We took the colonnade from the Tower over to the old El Centro building…

...poked around the gift shop, rolled past a closed foodcourt, and opted to see whether we could get some lunch at the pool. Surely enough, they were open and serving basic lunch fare, but the line was huge! The pool was full, with CMs standing at the entrance to let people know it would be awhile, but everyone seemed to be behaving well. Everyone kept their distance, even where there weren’t enough line markers, no one tried to hassle the CM to be let in because they were impatient, everyone did their best to stay out of other people’s space, everyone put their masks on as soon as they were out of the pool gate (except for one jerk smoking where he shouldn’t have been). It probably took us about half an hour to get our food, but it was less anxiety-inducing than most of our trip so far so that felt nice.

We took our lunch (a hotdog for N, chicken tenders for me) over to the patio area by the (closed) Maya Grill and ate outside, enjoying the pleasantly-warm weather with a gentle breeze. And then we waited for our “room ready” text.

And waited.

And waited.

It finally came at 3:30 - understandable given the traffic level that weekend, but still boring for those of us waiting! - then we picked up our bags and headed over to our room. It was in Casitas 5, on the side towards the parking lot, which put us closer to the ramp and the bus stop - exactly what we needed!

I think I need to stop here and say that we have been firmly “Value resort people.” I kind of pride myself on how little we need when we travel, in terms of accommodations, and getting cheap-but-nice hotels. We’ve stayed at the All-Stars a few times with no problems, then Pop until the Skyliner (which in our house is referred to as “the flying death-tube”) came in. But seriously.

I had no idea what we were missing.

The beds were comfy and large, there was a desk so N could do his schoolwork while we were gone plus plenty of room to spread out our junk, enough room for my chair to charge in the corner without tripping over it…The room was so nice that I did something I don’t think I’ve ever done while on vacation:

I unpacked!

Yes, normally we live out of the suitcases when we travel, but I actually unpacked into the drawers like a civilized human being!

We placed an Amazon Prime Now order for beverages and snacks since the refillable mugs weren’t available yet at CSR, then settled in for a lazy afternoon. The items were left at the check-in desk in the Tower, and when I rolled over there to pick up the delivery they offered to have a bellhop bring the items over instead, which I gladly accepted.

One of the traditions we’ve had since our very first Disney trip was getting Earl of Sandwich for dinner our first night. I still maintain it’s one of the best food values on-property if you’re not on a dining plan. However, after our last trip showed us how packed Disney Springs is during Thanksgiving weekend, the last thing we wanted to try was heading down there ourselves. Enter DoorDash! Which was great...until the first delivery guy called us to tell us he was tired of waiting to be allowed into the parking garage so he was giving up, and we had to figure out what that meant for our order. Luckily it meant another guy took the order instead. I had to go pick it up from him at El Centro because delivery drivers can’t get past the security gates to head closer to the rooms, but it was still no big deal. We ate our sandwiches while watching a documentary for N’s class, then called it an early night before our first park day.

 

[WonderWoman28]

Woohoo! Happy to be following along! We're going the first week in the December, so I'm excited to see how the weather was for your trip! Can't wait to read more

 

[valleygirl]

Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip. I'm also a long time lurker considering writing a trip report for my solo trip in September.

 

[fabfemmeboy]

Woohoo! Happy to be following along! We're going the first week in the December, so I'm excited to see how the weather was for your trip! Can't wait to read more

The weather was great! We usually started and ended the day in sweaters/sweatshirts and were in shirtsleeves most afternoons. Perfect for jeans/pants all week, though the Saturday we arrived was a little warm to sit outside all day. We took both shorts and our jackets and didn't use either one! We hit a little rain but not much - most of it the night we did the OI Meetup at Universal, and the rain didn't start until about 8-9 so most park-goers wouldn't have had a problem. I think we might have hit drizzle one other evening but can't remember for sure, so it must not have been too bad. We've gone twice that week now, and both times the weather has been perfect for us.

 

[Mich123]

Great start, can’t wait to read more! I’m definitely reliving my COVID travel anxiety. I think I might be wearing a mask for airplane travel forever…

 

[EvilVillainess]

I am really enjoying the report so far. Can't wait to read more.

 

[LifeTheDisneyWay14]

I hope people in the parks/at the resorts were better than the airport crowd! It’s maddening when people act like wearing a mask correctly is rocket science and/or a burden of such great scale that potentially spreading life threatening illness is preferable. Especially with the delta variant right now I’m hoping for a return of mask mandates and revision of CDC policy to follow the more cautious advice of actual epidemiologists.

 

[fabfemmeboy]

I hope people in the parks/at the resorts were better than the airport crowd! It’s maddening when people act like wearing a mask correctly is rocket science and/or a burden of such great scale that potentially spreading life threatening illness is preferable. Especially with the delta variant right now I’m hoping for a return of mask mandates and revision of CDC policy to follow the more cautious advice of actual epidemiologists.

Same here. The breakthrough infections are really scaring me. My chorus had a small-group performance last weekend, with everyone involved having been fully vaccinated. They had been rehearsing with masks but performed without masks...and literally 8 out of 24 singers have been confirmed to have Covid with a few more awaiting results. My sister-in-law just found out a couple of her coworkers had gotten it, too. I really do hope they go back to at least most of the restrictions they had - I know I'm in the minority there, but it's frustrating to see that we've evidently decided the risk is over when science says otherwise.

 

[fabfemmeboy]

Day 2: Around the World in 80,000 Calories​

We woke up bright and not-so-early on Sunday, because our first park was EPCOT, which didn’t open until 11. Seriously, the limited park hours were never a problem for us at all, but it was really strange not to be getting up early and racing out first thing in the morning as we had on prior trips. On the other hand, there wasn’t that awkward 2-hour wait between when the park opened and when World Showcase opened, which made it even better!

Our ensembles for the day: each of the new EPCOT logos (because a) I grew up with the old ones and loved them and b) I also enjoy park merch that doubles as subtle pride merch!), and “Westcot Forever” (not that N is bitter AT ALL, why do you ask?) Masks are a Spaceship Earth print and a cool constellation-y print for N.

We headed to the bus stop, which was a mixed-bag for us all week. We never had a problem with buses being too full or even with long wait times, but coming from value resorts we were frustrated by the lack of individual lines. A clump of people gathered at the stop, and there was no way to know which bus they were waiting for, where you were in the pecking order, etc. We tended to just roll up to the scooter-box which meant we always got on first, but I think there was only one bus that ever left with people still wanting on - just one in a couple weeks.

(I’m also really not used to drivers having to secure down my chair, because I ride public transit at home pretty often and they don’t care if you stay in one place! So that always threw me for a second, but I get it. Especially for scooters and other devices that don’t have the same hard-stop brakes mine has.)

Even with all the construction, this was still a very welcome sight!

We arrived at the park right about 10:45, so people had been in the park for about half an hour already. I got my DAS pass and we headed over to one of N’s favourites: Mission Space. We picked orange, headed in, were placed with only a couple other parties in the waiting room-

And wondered where in the world was Gary Sinise?!

Yeah. Turns out he’d been gone for like 4 years already, we just hadn’t known because we’d been away so long. Granted, I had always felt like he was a bad choice because, well, Apollo 13 didn’t inspire confidence in this manned mission to Mars, but still.

It was nice to have the capsule to ourselves, though I did find myself wondering about the air filtration in there and was glad we were there first thing in the morning. We rode it a couple times in a row (as is our custom), then I got a DAS return time for TestTrack and we headed into the shop-formerly-known-as-Mouse-Gears. Both of us immediately decided we needed a Dreams Come True Blue mask - in part because it was useful, in part because it was pretty, and in part because it was kind of the perfect souvenir for this particular trip. Masks acquired, we took our turns as crash test dummies...and laughed at the fact that Test Track really is just Radiator Springs Racers with lesser theming.

Then we headed to World Showcase to start our snacking adventure.

See, in any marriage, you learn what makes your partner tick, what argument makes them likely to agree to or refuse to do something, what persuades them, and so forth. For N, there are a few surefire ways to get him interested in something:

1. If it’s limited-edition
2. If it involves collecting multiple parts of a whole (or, in Xennial parlance, the “gotta catch ‘em all” effect)
3. If it involves tasty treats

So how did I get N, who was wary of this trip for valid Covid reasons, to be excited about it?

Enter the Taste of Festival of the Holidays. (Also the variety of holiday-specific treats in general.)

We had never been to any of the various EPCOT food festivals, in large part because neither of us drink so we assumed it would combine our three least favourite things: crowded parks, excessive bacon (we’re Jewish), and drunken idiots. It turns out that there is a lot more to the festivals than that, many of which we quite enjoy...to the point where our trip for 2021 was scheduled to hit both F&W and FOH.

Stop 1: Las Posadas for the Dulce de Leche Churro N loved the idea of this, as a Mexican boy raised in LA, but was disappointed - as expected - by the churro as it wasn’t nearly as good as at Disneyland. I don’t understand why WDW is so lacking in this department; they’re not rocket science, and I can literally get the same brand Disneyland uses at the local grocery store!

Stop 2: Norway’s regular bakery. I wanted to try the Scholbread that everyone else loves, but it’s covered in coconut which we’re both allergic to. Instead we went with a troll horn, which was unreasonably good.

Stop 3: Bavarian Kitchen. N, lover of all things cheese, got the cheese fondue in a bread bowl, which he loved. I got the schnitzel with spaetzle, which was ok; the spaetzle was different than the kind I grew up with, and the schnitzel was kind of overcooked and dry. We split the linzer cookie - yay cookie stroll - which we loved. So much softer than the ones I grew up with, nice and crumbly in a good way, tasty jam with a nice balance of flavours...definite thumbs up there.

Stop 4: Tuscany Holiday Kitchen for the cannoli, which was...meh. I’ve had better, and it was really overpriced for the size it was, which was disappointing.

At this point, we were pretty stuffed, so we decided to take a break and go watch Mariachi Cobre’s set. We got a nice spot with a bit of shade and a good view with plenty of space, and it was great to just sit and watch and not be in line for a bit. There were a number of songs N knew, which was fun.

When the show ended, they ushered everyone out between sets which I wasn’t used to, especially since I knew I wanted to stick around for Voices of Liberty that was starting in another 10-15 minutes. No harm though - we used the time to hit the restrooms at America and to grab our second cookie-stroll cookie, the chocolate crinkle. How good was it? Well, neither of us paused to take a picture of it!

(I was really tempted by a couple of the other items, but we were so stuffed by that point…)

Next up, Voices of Liberty. I am a huge acapella nut, the only music artist whose albums I always always get is Pentatonix, and I had Voctave’s latest album on repeat for the two months before our trip. (Have you heard their Disney Parks medley? How can you not want to visit when you listen to that?) So VOL was a no-brainer...even though I hadn’t ever seen them at the parks before because I don’t think we’ve ever gone into the America pavilion. It looks exactly like Philly and DC, where we lived for a decade, so it’s pretty meh for us. Anyway, VOL sounded gorgeous as always and made N wish he were decked out in Dickensian garb (also as always). We did laugh/snark a little at their version of “Rock of Ages” because it was so classicized and goyische that N didn’t recognize it...didn’t help that it was in English and not Hebrew. But otherwise it was lovely.

(continued in next post)​

 

[fabfemmeboy]

Needing a break from the food, we decided to head over to Future World and hit the West side. First, the movie thing with Ty Burrell, which we had never seen. It was surprisingly cute and let N rest his feet for a bit, which he appreciated.

Then we headed for the restrooms which was an...interesting...experience. First, someone who appeared able-bodied was using the only accessible stall, even though the restroom was almost entirely empty. Thanks, dude. Then I came out to watch our stuff while N went in, and from my position facing the wall I heard a family trying to wrangle their kids. It started with generic “no, we’re not doing that now, we’re waiting for Mommy” and ended with “[kid’s name], put your pants on!” It was hard not to giggle as I just listened to (but didn’t witness) the frustration.

Next up: Living with the Land. Being the eco-hippie dorks that we are, this is one ride we cannot miss - and usually ride more than once, honestly. We even did the Behind the Seeds tour on our first big Disney World trip together, which was awesome. N took a zillion pictures with his gorgeous new camera, while I took a whole bunch of lousy pictures with my far-less-good pocket-sized camera.

For comparison: His

...and mine.

We contemplated going on Soarin, which isn’t a must-do for either of us, because of how short the wait time was. However, seeing the swarm of people coming out of the ride and the total lack of distancing ability, we decided against it. Instead, with a little more room for food, we headed back to hit the front right side of World Showcase.

Stop 6: Holiday Sweets and Treats, which netted us our third cookie stroll cookie as well as my favourite treat of the entire day: the peppermint sundae. Some things you know you’ll like but are still surprised by just how delicious it is, and that was one of them for me. I’m a big fan of mint and chocolate, but something about the combination hit the spot.

And finally, Stop 7: Yukon Holiday Kitchen.
First, the yule log, which was...no. I wanted to like it, but it was like there were too many flavours competing with one another and they didn’t come together right. One of the only things we got and didn’t finish.

The Beef Bourguignon, on the other hand...the only thing we liked so much we ate it twice (on two separate days). So good, so tender, so flavourful, with just the right amount of mashed potatoes underneath and tiny pearl onions soaked in broth.

Full (for the second time) and worried about N being able to finish up his school work, we headed back to the front of the park to ride Spaceship Earth before heading back to the hotel. It was about 6:30, and the park was starting to get more crowded as locals headed over to check out the new festival foods.

“Our future” will, evidently, be quite pixelated and neither of us will have a head! After a year of faulty Zoom backgrounds, this somehow felt right.

 

[fabfemmeboy]

Day 3: RISE and Shine!​

I need to preface this by saying that this post will contain several unpopular opinions. Sorry not sorry.

And first, our ensembles for the day: Sorcerer Mickey (N) and rainbow villains a la Fantasmic (me)

(Remind me sometime to tell the story of the time our bathroom overflowed the night before a Disney trip and we spent all evening reenacting Sorcerer’s Apprentice, complete with music!)

I woke up at 6:45 full of anxiety and adrenaline as I knew I would need to try for ROTR boarding groups. I do have to say, I’m incredibly glad this is no longer an in-park thing, because there is no way we would have managed getting there super early with throngs of people - anxiety would have been through the roof. Based on other people’s experiences, I assumed that I would get a boarding group for sometime in the middle of the day, so I would be up at 7, go back to sleep until 11-ish, then head over the parks around lunchtime to ride.

I got group 5. Um. What?


So we had a bit of time to kill, but not a ton, as we would need to head over around 10. I knew we didn’t want to rush over and be part of the throng of people trying to get MMRR first thing, so we had a couple hours to hang out and do nothing. I think I got us grab-and-go breakfast of french toast sticks from the main building with N did some school work, but that could have been a different morning (it all ran together). I do know that we headed over to the park and got there at a few minutes after 10.

We started by taking pictures heading up the main drag. These cherubs: adorable or creepy?

Our money was on creepy. It’s one thing when they’re on grandma’s curio and like 3” high, but these are tall enough to kill you in your sleep. Which it looks like they want to do.

Seriously. Girl has murder in her eyes and beneath her frozen, horriffic smile...

Since we didn’t have a boarding notice yet, we went over to Toy Story Land. It was the first time we’d been back to DHS (which I still call MGM, in part because I grew up with it and in part because I lived in DC for a long time where DHS was something else) since the new land was added, which made it feel really strange. I kept thinking we were going the wrong way to TSMM. The line for Slinky Dog was already about an hour, so I got a DAS return time and we headed to TSMM, which was a walk-on. That may have been the strangest thing all trip - I’m used to it being at least 2 hours unless you get there very first thing in the morning. It’s a benefit of more e-tickets I will absolutely take: shorter lines for my favourite!

We went over to AS2, which was about a 20 minute wait - surprising after literally no wait for a better ride, but ok. Of course, every time we ride one of this type of ride, I remember the TSL in Shanghai where we saw a guy in a business suit and overcoat riding this style of ride midday on a weekday, with just...no expression whatsoever. Staring straight ahead, no smile, no laughing, even as he slid from side to side. It was both hilarious and sad at the same time.

Whenever we ride one of these, N tries to mess with his camera settings to get the really cool swoosh/motion blur effect. It never works. And he never remembers what he tried the last time, so he spends most of the ride frustrated that his camera is “too good” and keeps taking clear pictures.

Anyway, as we got off the swirling saucers, I got our boarding group notice.

Rather than backtrack, since we had an hour I decided to ride Slinky Dog first and then hit ROTR. TSL was already way too crowded, and I suspected it would only get worse as the day went on. I loved the ride, N adamantly did not but said it was because his anxiety was already too high from the crowds.

(Side note: this is the only Toy Story Land I like at all because it’s the only one with rides that aren’t just off-the-shelf kiddy rides like you’d find at the county fair. Even so, it is way too narrow for the size of the crowds that DHS has always gotten, and it makes the whole thing claustrophobic even when there’s not a pandemic. When things are crowded in Anaheim, it’s because they don’t have a choice because the space is so limited. What’s the excuse in Florida, especially given how much room they still have in that park’s footprint? /rant)

We made our way to ROTR, and it was...fine? I know, I know, that’s sacrilege. But hear me out: it’s billed as one long experience, but it’s really just a themed line. There’s a lot of wait-and-hurry-up, which I don’t love, and unless you have just the right spot for the first section (with Rey) it’s not that impressive. The Storm Trooper room was cool but hard to appreciate because they rush you through. The actual ride part itself is neat, and some of the effects are really impressive (like the blaster damage). And seeing the AT-ATs for the first time, I seriously gasped.

(thereby causing camera shudder, apparently)

But considering the amount of effort it takes to get to ride it, and the amount of obsession over it, I felt kind of underwhelmed. It wasn’t bad, I rode it again later in the trip and will probably ride it on our next trip...it just wasn’t the most amazing thing I’d ever seen, and I think part of the hype is because it’s the first trackless system at WDW (which is fine, but other Disney parks have had them for a decade already).
We left Star Wars Land and went in search of lunch. We opted for BackLot Express because of how much shaded outdoor dining they had, and because of this:

The red velvet whoopie pie.
(I had hoped to get the Chewbacca cookie thing, too, but they were replaced for the season. Oh well - definitely not a bad tradeoff because this was delicious!)

While we were eating, there were a couple cavalcades, which were kind of neat but did tend to result in people rushing to stand in a group and watch them, which does defeat the purpose (more on that when we get to MK). When we started our meal, we were the only ones in the area, but by the time we were done it was getting kind of crowded so we packed up and went to our old standby: Star Tours.

One more rant, then I swear I’m done: I’m really bummed that they limited the randomizers on this ride. It used to be that you could get any segment on any ride, so there were something like 54 options (2 opening x 3 first-planet x 3 transmissions x 3 second-planet). They stopped doing that in the name of “continuity” and now will only put 1-6 with other 1-6, and final trilogy with final trilogy. On one hand, that seems ok, but it means that it’s much easier to get identical rides multiple trips in a row, which takes away the incentive to re-ride. It’s also kind of illogical because you can still have Darth Vader intro with Anakin’s pod race with message from Leia with Ice Planet Hoth, which jumps back and forth across the first two trilogies...and also I don’t think anyone genuinely cares that much if they get Jakku and Coruscant in the same ride, not even hardcore nerds.

But anyway. So we rode twice and got the exact same ride twice, then decided we were done for the day. We shopped our way back to the main entrance and got back to the hotel before 2:00.

After a lazy afternoon, we thought we would head out to Disney Springs, shop a little, see the modified tree trail, etc. We were not expecting it to be so crowded on a random Monday evening! So we checked out WOD and bought way more than we needed from Amorette’s, then called it an early night.

...What did we get from Amorette’s, you ask? Well, since you want to know…

This salted caramel eclair, which was surprisingly light. Also…

This swiss cake roll of a thing that I honestly do not remember anything about. And finally...

This mouse-mousse cake with crispy balls in it that was really tasty (though did stain our teeth a bit with the red). SO good.

(Also a fourth item we didn’t eat/photograph until the following day, so I’ll post its pictures then!)