"Were all these people waiting for the Mine Train?"Adults Only WDW &US Sept '16 TR! COMPLETE 12/22

smiley519 · Sep 28, 2016

Full Trip Report Title Quote:

“Where’d all these people come from? Oh yeah, they were waiting for the Mine Train!”

Hi everyone! Welcome to my first ever Trip Report! I am so excited to share our adventures from our most recent trip to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando / Islands of Adventure!

Introductions

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My name is Lauren and I’ll be your narrator. Also pictured with me is my husband, Josh. This was our first adults-only trip to WDW. We are both kids at heart and had such a fun time in the happiest place on Earth!

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I didn’t do a PTR so here is a brief overview of our plans:

WHEN: September 5-13, 2016

WHERE: Disney’s Pop Century and Hampton Inn Orlando-S. Of Universal Studios.

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WHAT: 5-Day Park Hopper to WDW (September 6-10) and 3-Day Universal Park-to-Park Ticket (September 11-13).

WHY: Although Josh and I are both HUGE Disney and Pixar fans, we’ve never been to WDW together! His last time there was 2007 and mine was 2008. We went to Disneyland together in 2008. We are also both big Harry Potter fans. Josh had never been to HP World and I went for only 1 day back in 2012 back when there was only Hogsmeade in IoA. This trip was much overdue and we definitely enjoyed the flexibility that came with an adults only trip. We were also celebrating Josh’s September birthday!

I hope you will follow along as I share the details of our vacation adventures!

smiley519 · Sep 28, 2016

Table of Contents

Planning/Travel/Arrival – Monday, September 5, 2016 - Disney Springs:
Part 1: Introductions (Post #1)
Part 2: Travel Day and Arrival at Pop (Post #3)
Part 3: Exploring Pop and Disney Springs (Post #4)
Part 4: Dinner at Frontera Cocina and Exploring Art of Animation (Post #5)

Disney Day 1 – Tuesday, September 6, 2016 – MK, EMH at Epcot:
Part 5: A Rope Drop Morning in Fantasyland & Tomorrowland (Post #8)
Part 6: BOG Lunch, Heigh Ho, & Tangled Toilets (Post #9)
Part 7: First Aid, Adventureland, & Lots of FP’s (Post #10)
Part 8: “I Just Want to See the Floating Lanterns Gleam” and Dinner at Tony’s (Post #16)
Part 9: Celebrate the Magic, Wishes, & 3 Headliner Rides at Epcot EMH (Post #17)

Disney Day 2 – Wednesday, September 7, 2016– Epcot, EMH at MK:
Part 10: Rope Drop at Epcot and FEA x3 (Post #20)
Part 11: A Character Palooza Surprise and Talking with Turtles (Post #21)
Part 12: Character Meets and Dinner at Teppan Edo (Post #22)
Part 13: IllumiNations, A Popular EMH at MK, & So Many Steps (Post #23)

Disney Day 3 – Thursday, September 8, 2016– DHS:
Part 14: Rope Drop at Hollywood Studios & TSMM Battle Begins (Post #28)
Part 15: 50's Prime Time Lunch, Warm Hugs, & Afternoon Shows (Post #29)
Part 16: Tale as Old as Time & Mickey's Dream! (Post #30)

Disney Day 4 – Friday, September 9, 2016–AK, MK, EMH at DHS:
Part 17: Wilderness Explorers, Safari Adventures, & Baby Gorillas (Post #34)
Part 18: New Favorite Musical & Park Hop x3 (Post #35)

Disney Day 5 – Saturday, September 10, 2016 – MK, Epcot, MK:
Part 19: 7DMT?, Flying Elephants, & Royal Sisters (Post #39)
Part 20: Via Napoli, "Where's My Magic Band?", Paper FPs, & 7DMT Reprise (Post #40)
Part 21: Final Disney Night, Final MSEP, & Final Rides (Post #41)

Universal Day 1 – Sunday, September 11, 2016 – USO, IoA:
Part 22: Minions, Ogres, & Robots (Post #46)
Part 23: Gringotts Adventures and Leaky Cauldron Lunch (Post #47)
Part 24: Wet Bilge Rats, Seuss People Mover, & Funny Mystic Fountain (Post #48)
Part 25: First Butterbeer and the Park’s Gonna Close so Run to Moe’s! (Post #49)

Universal Day 2 – Monday, September 12, 2016 – IoA, USO:
Part 26: Multiple Forbidden Journeys & Lunch at Mythos (Post #54)
Part 27: Meeting the Shrunken Head Video, Locked Lockers, “Super” Terminator, & Dinner at Vivo Italian Kitchen (Post #55)

Universal Day 3 – Tuesday, September 13, 2016 – IoA, USO:
Part 28: King Kong and a Chatty Goblin (Post #61)
Part 29: Mel’s Drive-In, Final Universal Rides, and Flight Home (Post #62)

Trip Report Wrap Up:
Trip Report Wrap Up (Post #65)

smiley519 · Sep 28, 2016

Part 2: Monday, September 5th – Travel Day and Arrival at Pop

Leading up to our trip, we had been carefully tracking Tropical Storm Hermine and hoping for the best. I was following along with the threads on the DIS about the storm and loved the Gaston vs. Hermione comparisons. Luckily, it looked like we were just going to miss the storm up in Philadelphia and in Orlando. We really lucked out weather wise!

We had an early morning breakfast at a waffle house with my in-laws who were graciously dropping us off at the airport. We ended up getting to the Philadelphia International Airport at 11 AM, 3 hours before our flight. We walked around the airport to kill some time and grabbed a quick lunch before our flight. We flew Southwest from PHL to MCO and our flight was at 1:55 PM. We checked in exactly 24 hours before and got boarding position A50 and A51, score!

While we were waiting in line to board, I received our Disney room alert text letting us know that our room was ready! We are staying at Pop Century and received room number 8259 2nd Floor in the 90’s theme building 8. I instantly logged onto TouringPlans.com to see what our room view looked like and saw we faced some trees.

We boarded our plane, got seats together, and our flight took off at exactly 1:55 PM!

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We’re off to a great start. We rested up on the plane and played some card games, which interested our seatmate. Our plane landed 35 minutes early at 3:55 PM. We then ceremoniously put on our Magic Bands and started getting really excited!

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We took the Fake-o-Rail from our gate to baggage claim. Josh also stopped to high five Mickey outside the Disney Store in the airport.

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Since we weren’t going to a park our first night, we decided we would retrieve our 1 checked suitcase from baggage claim and bring it with us on the Disney Magical Express. Our bag came off pretty quickly and we were off to follow the signs to the DME! We got to the DME at 4:40 and sat and waited on the bus for about 20 minutes as they waited for more people to fill it up. It was our first ride on it and we enjoyed watching all of the Disney parks footage and the Mickey Mouse cartoons. Our bus left at 5 PM and made stops at Art of Animation, Pop Century (that’s us!), AK Lodge, and Kidani Village.

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We started seeing some familiar signs for Disney and got even more excited!!

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We arrived at Pop at 5:32 PM and went directly to our room. It was nice already having our room number and not needing to stop at the front desk. This was also our first trip with magic bands and we absolutely loved the convenience of having our room key, park tickets, FastPasses, and credit card all conveniently stored on our wrist.

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We got to our room 8259 in Building 8.

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On the preferences form, I had requested close to transportation, ground floor, and a king sized bed. Upon arriving at our room, we found that we were semi close to transportation (about a 5 minute walk across the 90s parking lot), 2nd floor (not near the elevator but near the steps inside the giant cellphone), and 2 double beds. We realized that we would only be using the room to sleep and change as we’d be in the parks all day and decided to make do. :confused3

As discussed in the Pop Century thread on the forum, we were surprised but not shocked to see that our room didn’t have a clock. I also noticed that there wasn’t separate conditioner provided (it was a combo shampoo and conditioner) and no body lotion. I called down to Mousekeeping to ask about getting a clock, conditioner, and body lotion delivered to our room. They said they could definitely bring by a clock but the hotel doesn’t offer conditioner or body lotion, which I was a little surprised by.

Here’s a tour of our room and the view from our window:

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I was also excited to find Hidden Mickey’s in both the carpet and wallpaper in the bathroom.

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We decided to leave the unpacking until later but changed outfits for our plans to go out to dinner.

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I promise the coordinating of my magic band to my outfit was a coincidence! :lmao:

Continued in Next Post

smiley519 · Sep 28, 2016

Part 3: Monday, September 5th – Exploring Pop Century and Disney Springs

After we got changed, it was time to explore our hotel and take a trip through all the decades. Get ready for a lot of pictures of Pop!

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This was our building and the stairs we climbed to our room.

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We loved all the larger than life icons and thought the pools all looked nice too. I had a lot of fun snapping photos of the colorful icons and buildings. Our original plan was to go swimming for a bit and then go to Disney Springs for dinner but it was an overcast day and sprinkling a bit so we decided to skip the pool and head right to Disney Springs.

At 6:50 PM, we caught a bus to Disney Springs (we still slipped up and often referred to it as Downtown Disney) and only had to wait 5 minutes for the bus to arrive. We walked around and explored the many shops including The World of Disney, the Lego store, Pandora, and Alex and Ani.

Josh and I both made some stuffed friends:

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I got a handful of Beauty and the Beast tsum tsums!

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We’re really just big kids at heart.

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And here’s a quick flashback to then and now:

Lauren in 2011 curtseying with Cinderella

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And Lauren in 2016

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Can you spot the human?

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Continued in Next Post

smiley519 · Sep 28, 2016

Part 4: Monday, September 5th – Dinner at Frontera Cocina and Exploring Art of Animation

We were starting to get hungry so we decided to see how long the wait time would be at Frontera Cocina, a Mexican restaurant, since we hadn’t made a reservation. We got there around 8:15 PM and got seated right away. Josh and I shared the Verde guacamole & chips as our appetizer and they were yummy! I ordered the make your own chicken tacos for making soft tacos and Josh had the make your own carne asada for making soft tacos

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Both of our meals were delicious and we loved that it came with unlimited soft corn tortillas! We were too full for dessert so we decided to walk around some more. We went to Tren-D, Art of Animation, and Pin Traders.

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Our long travel day was starting to catch up with us so we decided to head out to the buses. We were interested in exploring Pop’s sister hotel, Art of Animation, so we waited 2 minutes for a bus at 10:05 PM and headed off to Art of Animation. We got to AoA at 10:35 PM and walked around the lobby and explored the Finding Nemo, Lion King, and Little Mermaid sections.

Chandelier with sketches signed by Disney and Pixar artists

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“We're gonna get old walking across this thing.” – Timon in The Lion King 1 ½

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Save Josh, Scar!

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Follow the leader!

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We were too tired to head over to the Cars section but saw it from a distance. We also thought it was interesting that 3 of the sections were more hotel-like that the rooms were interior and one section (The Little Mermaid) was more motel-like (similar to Pop) with outside facing rooms.

After our mini field trip, we walked over the Generation Gap Bridge over Hourglass Lake. We also enjoyed reading the fun facts along the parkway about the important events of each decade.

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We finally made it back to our room, unpacked, got our clothes ready for the next day, showered, and went to bed by 12:45 AM. We used the iPhone Health app to track our steps and were shocked to see that we had walked 29,135 steps and 14.1 miles our first day!!

Up Next: Our first Disney day at the Magic Kingdom for rope drop!

Mich123 · Sep 28, 2016

Subbing! We are planning a November trip and our goal is to walk 30,000 steps at least one day--we've gotten close at WDW and DL, but have never gotten more than 28,000 steps. I'm totally impressed that you walked 29,000 steps in 1/2 a day!

smiley519 · Sep 28, 2016

Mich123 said:
Subbing! We are planning a November trip and our goal is to walk 30,000 steps at least one day--we've gotten close at WDW and DL, but have never gotten more than 28,000 steps. I'm totally impressed that you walked 29,000 steps in 1/2 a day!

Thanks for following along and good luck with planning your November trip!

30,000 steps is a good goal and definitely attainable at WDW! Our most-walked day ended up being our second day where we walked all over Epcot. We actually surpassed 40,000 steps! :eek:

smiley519 · Sep 29, 2016

Tuesday, September 6th – Magic Kingdom

Part 5: A Rope Drop Morning in Fantasyland & Tomorrowland

Park Plan: Rope drop at Magic Kingdom at 9 AM, EMH at Epcot from 9-11 PM (if we’re still standing)

Schedule:
11:05 AM Lunch ADR: Be Our Guest
11:40-12:40 PM Space Mountain
12:50-1:50 PM Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
2:00-3:00 PM Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
6:50 PM Dinner ADR: Tony's Town Square Restaurant

We set a wakeup call for 7:15 AM and were awoken by our pal Baymax who greeted us with “Good morning! This is Baymax. I recommend a day filled with fun and happiness today. Fun can be expressed by a fist pump.” We were waiting for him to make the sound effects but when he didn’t, we did it for him with an energetic “Bah-la-la-la-la!” We were up early to get to rope drop and to see the Magic Kingdom Welcome Show which we hadn’t seen before. We had packed a box of Pop-Tarts to save time and money so we could eat a quick breakfast. We decided to take daily morning pictures using my camera’s self-timer to show how bright-eyed and bushy tail we were each morning…and show off our cute Disney shirts!

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We got dressed, slathered on sunscreen, put on Body Glide to prevent chafing (another tip from the DIS and it really worked!), used the hotel’s complimentary bug spray, and were waiting at the buses at 8 AM. Only one bus board sign was working at Pop during our stay but it was nice being able to see how long until the next bus would arrive. We didn’t have to wait too long because a bus pulled up at 8:02 AM. In fact, 3 buses all heading to the MK pulled up at the same time and we got on the second bus and left at 8:12 AM.

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We were so excited sitting on the bus knowing we were heading to the Magic Kingdom and WDW! We quickly snapped a picture of the MK sign and the bus dropped us off at 8:30 AM.

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I had 1 purse and Josh went bag-less the whole trip. I purchased a new Vera Bradley Triple Zip Hipster Crossbody in Blue Bandana specifically for this trip after reading suggestions here on the DIS.

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In it, I was able to fit 2 ponchos, 2 sunglasses cases and sunglasses, a portable external iPhone charger, Disney pins, 3 oz. pouch of sunscreen, Band-Aids, tissues, camera, 2 camera rechargeable batteries, pens, park maps, our daily touring plan for FP+ and ADRs, credit cards and gift cards, cash, quarters and pennies for pressed pennies, driver’s license, and my iPhone. I absolutely loved the purse and it was super convenient when going on rides to have a crossbody bag. It was also a masculine-ish enough color that my amazing husband didn’t mind carrying it sometimes when it got too heavy toward the end of the day. I also tried the trick of putting my iPhone in low power mode every day and this greatly helped to conserve my phone battery to help it last 12+ hours a day. My husband’s phone case has a Mophie so he used that to recharge his phone.

We never had any issues with bag check and security but it wasn’t until a couple days into our trip that we realized that you didn’t have to go through the metal detectors and people were just randomly chosen to go through. Josh was chosen a few times because he was standing around waiting for me on the other side of bag check. Security usually docked us less than 5 minutes depending on the lines and then we were on our way. The Magic Kingdom Welcome Show started around 8:45 AM and we got spots right in front of the train station.

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We absolutely loved all of the pomp and circumstance to open the park and I enjoyed watching Josh’s face light up as all our favorite characters came riding in on the train. Such a great way to start the day!

Our rope drop plan was to conquer as much of the most popular Fantasyland rides as we could. We took some quick pictures of the Halloween decorations and Cinderella’s Castle and then fast walked over to Peter Pan’s Flight.

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The WDW Crane (which has its own Facebook page) was out during the daytime for the duration of our visit.

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The sign said there was a 5 minute wait, which we knew would the shortest wait of the day. We enjoyed the new interactive queue and sailed off to Neverland!

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I had to document the low wait time!

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We next walked by Seven Dwarves Mine Train but saw it already had a 30 minute wait. Since we had a FP+ for it that afternoon, we decided to skip it for now. We decided to visit our old friend Winnie the Pooh who only had a 10 minute wait. On the ride, I spotted a picture of Mr. Toad handing over a deed to the ride to Owl as a homage to the late Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

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We then headed under the seas with the Little Mermaid (our first time) which was a walk-on and our first time riding it.

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We were excited to see the same fish we had posed with the night before at AoA!

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Then we were off to Tomorrowland!

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We blasted off through space via Space Mountain which was a 12 minute wait. I’m not a big roller coaster fan but I tried this ride for the first time with Josh in Disneyland and actually ended up liking it! I think the reason is mainly because the ride is in the dark so I can’t anticipate when the drops are and what they look like, :laughing:

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We next headed to Buzz Lightyear. Josh was excited that he was chosen to hold the red card to measure the wait time in the queue. The wait time was listed as 20 minutes but it only took us 10 minutes. Josh and I are very competitive and I beat him this round by 5,000 points!

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Check out this look of concentration while Josh is just grinning.

We next headed to share some laughs with Mike Wazowski at Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. We love the audience involvement and were sitting 2 seats away from “That Guy.”

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Tomorrowland was still pretty empty

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Continued in Next Post

smiley519 · Sep 29, 2016

Tuesday, September 6th – Magic Kingdom (continued)

Part 6: BOG Lunch, Heigh Ho, & Tangled Toilets

We next headed over to Belle and Beast’s castle for our Be Our Guest 11:05 AM ADR! We were very lucky to snag this reservation because we didn’t start planning our trip until mid-May which was way after the 180 day out mark. I would browse the MDE app at work and happened to stumble upon this available lunch reservation. I quickly scooped it up because I knew we’d both love the experience of eating in the castle for the first time.

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We checked in, received our magical rose, and waited about 10 minutes to get seated and pay. We placed our lunch orders ahead of time online so we were able to go right in and find a table in the main ballroom.

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Panorama shot of the main ballroom

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It’s snowing outside the castle!

Our food came out very quickly. I had the Carved Turkey Sandwich with Pommes Frites (fancy French fries) and Josh had the Carved Prime Chuck Roast Beef Sandwich with Pommes Frites. Both the food and atmosphere were awesome and we were in awe looking up at the big chandeliers.

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After we finished eating, we went to explore the West Wing:

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And we looked at the Rose Gallery. I absolutely loved all of the tapestries along the walls and the glorious music box in the center of the room. The Imagineers did a great job with designing this restaurant!

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We took a few more pictures as we were leaving:

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After our delicious lunch at BoG, we headed to Tomorrowland for our first FP: Space Mountain! We both enjoy Space Mountain so much that it was actually tied as our most-ridden ride at Disney with 6 times over our trip! We got there at 12 PM and waited about 8 minutes before we were boarding.

Next we headed over to Stitch’s Great Escape which was a walk-on. Josh and I had just recently watched Lilo and Stitch the week before our trip and although Josh wasn’t that fond of the movie when he saw it when it first came out, he now loved it. Therefore I felt obligated to set his expectations very low for the ride since he hadn’t been on it before. He told me he was glad that I did because after it was over he asked “That’s it? It’s over?” And since coming back home, I’ve read that it’s going to become a seasonal ride and is probably on its way out. Well, we’re glad we got to ride it one final time. I was honored with the red card this time.

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Before we knew it, it was time for our second FP: Seven Dwarves Mine Train! I had read mixed reviews on the forum but went in expecting that it would be a short, mini coaster. We were not disappointed! We walked right on and even got the front row! We loved the animatronic dwarves and loved that they incorporated the dancing scene with Snow White and the dwarves from the original Snow White’s Scary Adventure ride at the end. We definitely got spoiled by fastpassing it and not needing to wait in the 60+ minute line. That was the only FP I had made for it, but we managed to sneak a few more rides on it during our trip. We also had “Heigh Ho” stuck in our heads for a very long time.

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We next rode one of Josh’s all-time favorite rides/shows: Mickey’s Philharmagic. It’s such a great 3-D show and Josh loves it because it features his favorite character, Donald.

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Evidence of Josh’s love for Donald: Donald on his shirt, holding a stuffed Donald, and standing underneath Donald on the ceiling

We took some pictures in the gift shop.
Josh: Why are you tilting your head like that?
Lauren: Because I want you to get the braided hair in the picture!

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We were sad that It’s A Small World was closed during our visit. Maybe next time!

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I next introduced Josh to the Tangled Toilets which did not disappoint. They truly are the best bathrooms in Disney and I loved all of the Tangled details in this area.

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We of course had to take a picture with Rapunzel’s tower.

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We wandered over to the gallows and here’s another then and now:

Josh in 2007:

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Josh in 2016:

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He made the same face without looking at the old picture and seems to have moved to the other side. It’s funny to see how the benches and backgrounds have changed over the years.

Hey we have a Liberty Bell that looks just like this one back home.

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You can never have too many pictures of the castle:

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Continued in Next Post

smiley519 · Sep 29, 2016

Tuesday, September 6th – Magic Kingdom (continued)

Part 7: First Aid, Adventureland, & Lots of FP’s

We next made a side trip over to the First Aid station, which is located on Main Street between Casey’s Corner and Crystal Palace. About 30 minutes within entering the park, my ankle started really bothering me. I knew I had a lot of walking ahead of me over the following days so I knew I would need something to help bolster my ankle. I had brought 2 ACE bandages from home with me but hadn’t thought to pack them in my park bag. Disney’s First Aid was very nice and had me sign in and provided me with a heavy duty ACE bandage. By the middle of the trip, my feet/ankles survived by wearing a bandage on each foot every day. Josh said he took this candid picture to capture the moment and “in case I wanted to include it in my TR.” :rotfl:

P1130405 by smiley519, on Flickr

While we were on Main Street, we decided to get Josh his celebrations birthday pin! We first went to Guest Relations in City Hall because that’s where they were handed out when we last visited (8 years ago…) but learned that we had to go the Emporium Shop and ask there. Josh got his birthday button and they gave him a marker so he could write his name on it. We also got two anniversary buttons for early celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary.

P1130406 by smiley519, on Flickr
My happy, birthday boy!

P1130410 by smiley519, on Flickr
The pin on my purse makes it look like Mickey and Minnie are celebrating!

As we were walking to our next FP, we caught a bit of Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire and took some pictures of Rapunzel and Eugene from a distance.

P1130429 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130430 by smiley519, on Flickr

Then we were off to do battle again at our 2-3 PM FP for Buzz Lightyear. We walked right on and I beat Josh again by about 5,000 points: 119,900 to 114,800. But we both doubled our scores from that morning so that was cool. We both discovered where the picture spot was this time too:

P1130437 by smiley519, on Flickr

We then checked the MDE app to see if we could make a 4th FP. We booked one for Pirates and walked right on.

P1130438 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130439 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130442 by smiley519, on Flickr
“Don’t tell him, Carlos! Don’t be chicken!”

P1130446 by smiley519, on Flickr
“We want the redhead!”

P1130450 by smiley519, on Flickr

We then made a 5th FP for Haunted Mansion while in line for Pirates and walked right onto HM.

P1130451 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130452 by smiley519, on Flickr

We headed back through Adventureland and saw Pirates only had a 5 minute wait, so we rode again standby. We then made a 6th FP for Jungle Cruise and walked on. I was so happy that my favorite corniest joke is still included in the script about one of the most majestic sights of the cruise: the backside of water! We also loved being able to use the MDE app and make FP reservations while we were walking to the next ride we wanted to get a FP for – so convenient!

P1130455 by smiley519, on Flickr
Josh was pretty sure this was his first time cruising through the jungle!

P1130461 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130472 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130477 by smiley519, on Flickr
These elephants are always so happy

We then waited 10 minutes stand-by for The Magic Carpets of Aladdin.

P1130484 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130481 by smiley519, on Flickr

We shared in another first together by visiting The Enchanted Tiki Room. Since It’s a Small World was closed, we thought the catchy Tiki Tiki Tiki Room song would be a nice replacement. :laughing:

To Be Continued

HomeSweetDisney · Sep 29, 2016

I am joining in! Looks like you guys had a great first day! You both look like you are lots of fun! :goodvibes

Looking forward to reading more!

smiley519 · Sep 29, 2016

HomeSweetDisney said:
I am joining in! Looks like you guys had a great first day! You both look like you are lots of fun!

Looking forward to reading more!

Hi there and welcome! :wave2:

We definitely did have a great first day at Disney!

I love your avatar! I think you're definitely going to enjoy seeing who we met in the next update!

Mich123 · Sep 29, 2016

40,000 steps! New goal!

Fun report--you were so lucky to get so many FPs on your first day!!!!

KBOhio · Sep 29, 2016

Following along. Can't wait to read more!

smiley519 · Sep 29, 2016

Mich123 said:
40,000 steps! New goal!

Fun report--you were so lucky to get so many FPs on your first day!!!!

We were exhausted after all those steps but they're worth it...and necessary to explore all parts of Epcot!

We were really impressed with how many FP reservations we were able to make our first day. We made a grand total of 8! We definitely were spoiled by the low crowds at MK on a Tuesday because we would encounter more crowds when we returned later on in the week and on a Saturday.

KBOhio said:
Following along. Can't wait to read more!

Welcome and :thanks:

I'm glad to have you reading along!

smiley519 · Sep 29, 2016

Tuesday, September 6th – Magic Kingdom (continued)

Part 8: “I Just Want to See the Floating Lanterns Gleam” and Dinner at Tony’s

We then headed back through Cinderella’s castle to get to Fantasyland.

P1130487 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130488 by smiley519, on Flickr

Here’s a hint for who we were able to see at the meet and greet:

P1130496 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130497 by smiley519, on Flickr

The posted time was 5 minutes but it took closer to 15. We were going to meet (you guessed it) Princess Tiana and Rapunzel! Tiana asked us where we were from and when we said Philadelphia she responded “Philadelphia? I hear they have great cheesesteaks and cream cheese!” in a very southern drawl accent. We answered that yes, that is what our city is famous for. She asked if we had been to New Orleans and when we said no, she said we would have to try her gumbo. It was a great interaction.

P1130498 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130499 by smiley519, on Flickr

Then we met Rapunzel who is one of my favorite Disney princesses. I told her that we had been married for 2 years and I walked down the aisle to an instrumental version of “I See The Light” from her movie. She said that she absolutely loved that! This was her face and reaction when I told her this:

P1130505 by smiley519, on Flickr

She then saw Josh’s birthday button and asked if he was going to set off lanterns for his birthday. She said that he better check first that Pascal wasn’t hiding in any of the lanterns because he likes to hide in them. I don’t know if I should be a little jealous of this doting look she’s giving my husband!

P1130506 by smiley519, on Flickr

Then she replied that we should go on a double date with her and Eugene and exchange marriage tips! I giddily responded “Ok!” and said we’d be in touch. It was a fantastic meet and greet!!

P1130509 by smiley519, on Flickr

Afterward we walked around Gaston’s Tavern. We got in line to meet Gaston but he was about to take a break so we snapped a picture from afar.

P1130515 by smiley519, on Flickr

We went to visit his statue. My favorite part is the inscription: “Tribute to Gaston – An extremely generous gift to the humble people of my village, from me, Gaston.”

P1130519 by smiley519, on Flickr
My macho husband

We then made our 7th FP for the Enchanted Tales with Belle. I knew the attraction was geared toward little kids but I had read about the magic mirror on the DIS and purposefully hadn’t read any spoilers. The Magic Mirror was so cool and we are convinced that it’s truly Disney magic! The storytelling was fun and watching the little kids reenact the story was very cute.

P1130522 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130524 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130530 by smiley519, on Flickr

We went for a quick spin on the tea cups at Alice’s Mad Tea Party. Did the ride always come to such an abrupt stop (or are we just getting older)?

P1130539 by smiley519, on Flickr

We then headed to the Carousel of Progress which we walked onto. I had never been on this ride before. Well we ended up getting stuck on the 3rd scene and had to watch it twice. Luckily they got it up and running and we were able to get to the final scene.

P1130547 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130548 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130549 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130552 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130557 by smiley519, on Flickr

I was excited to spot a hidden Mickey in the Mickey Mouse nutcracker on the fireplace in the final scene from the future.

P1130559 by smiley519, on Flickr

It was then time for our dinner ADR at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant at 6:50 PM.

P1130565 by smiley519, on Flickr

We started off with some delicious bread and butter. Josh ordered the Pasta Fagioli soup and Spaghetti and Meatballs as his entrée. I had the Chicken Parmigiana and penne pasta. Both of our meals were absolutely delicious and we also had a great waitress. The portions were perfectly sized and we both agreed that this was one of our favorite meals at Disney! :thumbsup2

P1130566 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130568 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130571 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130572 by smiley519, on Flickr

We made our 8th and final FP for Space Mountain from 7:30-8:30 PM. We waited in line for about 10 minutes and started playing the Disney pack of the Heads Up app. We would frequently break out the game when waiting in line to help pass the time. We had a few families watching us play who were impressed with our skills. We learned that the FP line has a different track than the standby line and I’m pretty sure I felt more drops this time. Josh was excited that he got the first row.

Continued in Next Post

smiley519 · Sep 29, 2016

Tuesday, September 6th – Magic Kingdom (continued)

Part 9: Celebrate the Magic, Wishes, & 3 Headliner Rides at Epcot EMH

It was around 8:30 PM so we made our way over to the Hub grass and found a good spot to watch Celebrate the Magic and Wishes.

P1130584 by smiley519, on Flickr
I love this picture of the castle, lit up Mickey pumpkin head, and even the blue Mickey balloon that snuck in.

Celebrate a world filled with magic

P1130595 by smiley519, on Flickr

Wish upon a star that shines so bright

P1130608 by smiley519, on Flickr

Enter a world of make believe

P1130614 by smiley519, on Flickr

Let your dreams come true tonight!

P1130639 by smiley519, on Flickr

Celebrate a world filled with magic

P1130642 by smiley519, on Flickr

Where happiness is found around the bend, where all your dreams and fantasies, magically will never end!

P1130652 by smiley519, on Flickr

Celebrate a world filled with magic

P1130653 by smiley519, on Flickr

Wish upon a star that shines so bright

P1130650 by smiley519, on Flickr

Enter a world of make believe

P1130654 by smiley519, on Flickr

"I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse."

P1130655 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130657 by smiley519, on Flickr

Let your dreams come true tonight

P1130664 by smiley519, on Flickr

Celebrate the Magic!

P1130665 by smiley519, on Flickr

I might have listened to CTM on YouTube just a few times while adding the pictures and lyrics. :music:

The castle projections were so cool and luckily for us (and our aching feet), everyone in our section remained seated

And now it was time for Wishes!

P1130666 by smiley519, on Flickr
Tink! :tinker:

P1130677 by smiley519, on Flickr
Don’t these fireworks look like a Hidden Mickey?

P1130682 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130700 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130706 by smiley519, on Flickr
This might be my favorite picture I’ve ever taken of fireworks!!

No one does fireworks quite like Disney. ::yes::

At the conclusion of Wishes, we started making our way down Main Street and out of the Magic Kingdom. We were suddenly surrounded by people and I asked Josh “Where did all of these people come from? Oh yeah, they were waiting for the Mine Train!” We barely had any wait or lines all day so we figured they must have all been in the 80+ minute mine train line. This ended up being the title of this trip report. We both just found the moment so funny at our total shock of all of these other guests coming out of the woodwork of the MK.

P1130711 by smiley519, on Flickr

We made our way of the park and took the express monorail to the TTC and then a monorail from TTC to Epcot because Epcot had EMH from 9-11 PM that night.

P1130715 by smiley519, on Flickr

While waiting in line for the monorail, we met a couple in front of us who had celebrations buttons on. They told us they were just engaged the day before and he had popped the question at the Boardwalk. They were close in age to us and really cool so we ended up exchanging numbers and meeting up with them several times during the week. We’d also learn that we had 2 mutual friends so it really is a small world after all!

Once we got to Epcot, we power walked over to Soarin’. It was our first time on Soarin’ Around the World and we loved the new version!

P1130725 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130719 by smiley519, on Flickr
So glad they kept Patrick Warburton in the pre-show!

We then power walked again (seriously why are the major rides in Epcot so spread out??) over to Mission: Space Orange and walked on. Josh was the navigator and I was the pilot. I really enjoyed it but when I looked over at Josh afterward, he didn’t look too good and said he felt sick. Luckily he didn’t get sick and said it was a good thing there was cold air blowing in his face. I told my birthday boy that he’s not as young as he used to be! We decided that we’d be riding the Green route the rest of the time.

We then hightailed it to Test Track and got there at 10:55 PM right before they closed the entrance. It was our first time on the new version and we liked designing our racecar, which took 2nd place in our vehicle and had a rating of 200. It was a fun ride and the outside part at night went really fast!

P1130720 by smiley519, on Flickr

We were glad that we were able to fit in all 3 of the main attractions at Epcot into the EMH and were excited to explore the rest of Epcot the next morning.

P1130723 by smiley519, on Flickr
Quick selfie with the giant golf ball to prove we were here

We got in line for the bus to Pop Century at 11:40 PM, the bus came at 11:52, and we were back at Pop by 12:05 AM. We looked at our steps that day and had taken 38,397 steps and walked 20.32 miles!! We both wondered how the heck we were going to be able to keep up this pace for the rest of the week.

IMG_4025 by smiley519, on Flickr
Screenshot taken at 11:40 while we got in line for the buses

Although we might have overdone it a bit our first day, we had fun and quickly fell asleep.

Up Next: Rope drop at Epcot and multiple times on Frozen Ever After!

ariane37 · Sep 29, 2016

Fun report so far! I like all the pictures from around Pop. We've never explored there and I've only seen a couple pictures here and there of all the big statues. Good job with getting all the extra FP's on your MK day!
Yours is also the first review I've seen of Frontera, glad you enjoyed it

OK just read your latest update so I'm editing to add, you got a TON done your first day, impressive! Also great pictures of CtM :thumbsup2

smiley519 · Sep 29, 2016

ariane37 said:
Fun report so far! I like all the pictures from around Pop. We've never explored there and I've only seen a couple pictures here and there of all the big statues. Good job with getting all the extra FP's on your MK day!
Yours is also the first review I've seen of Frontera, glad you enjoyed it

Thank you and welcome to my TR! :wave:

It was our first time at Pop too so we were in awe of all of the big statues. Frontera Cocina was definitely delicious and we recommend it!

I think I posted at the same time as you so there's two more updates for you to enjoy! :thumbsup2

smiley519 · Oct 2, 2016

Wednesday, September 7th – Epcot

Part 10: Rope Drop at Epcot and FEA x3

Park Plan: Rope drop at Epcot at 9 AM, EMH at Magic Kingdom from 9-11 PM (if we’re still functioning)
Schedule:
10:50-11:50 AM Soarin' Around the World
12:10-1:10 PM Mission: SPACE
2:10-3:10 PM Turtle Talk with Crush
7:20 PM Dinner ADR: Teppan Edo

We woke up bright and early again at 7:15 AM. We got ready, ate Pop-Tarts for breakfast, and left our hotel room at 8:15 AM.

P1130730 by smiley519, on Flickr
(We had matching Mickeys shirts today)

We just missed an Epcot bus but we waited about 10 minutes and caught the next bus.

P1130732 by smiley519, on Flickr

We arrived to Epcot and joined the rope drop crowd waiting for the park to open. At 8:58 AM, they let everyone in.

P1130734 by smiley519, on Flickr

We raced (pun intended) over to Test Track and got there at 9 AM. We walked right on and got the front row.

P1130739 by smiley519, on Flickr

We then walked to the other side of the park and road Soarin’ which was also a walk-on. We asked for row B1 and got it. We love the view from dead center and noticed in our Soarin’ flight the previous night that the Eiffel Tower looks a little warped if you’re sitting on the right or left sides.

P1130743 by smiley519, on Flickr

We stopped for a picture with Spaceship Earth:

P1130746 by smiley519, on Flickr

After riding the two main attractions we wanted to do at rope drop, it was about 10:30 AM and we decided to check our MDE app and see what the wait time was for Frozen Ever After. We weren’t expecting to get a chance to ride it today and were planning on using our Tier 1 FEA FP we had made for our last Disney day on Saturday. The app had a posted wait time of 30 minutes. We figured it was only going to increase as the day went on so we decided to go for it and walked over to the World Showcase and Norway.

P1130752 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130757 by smiley519, on Flickr

We got in line and it ended up only being 10 minutes! Josh had previously been on Maelstrom but I had not. We took some pictures in the queue which proved to be difficult because the line was moving so quickly!

P1130760 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130795 by smiley519, on Flickr
“Yoo-hoo! Big summer blowout!”

P1130762 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130799 by smiley519, on Flickr

We knew it was going to be a quick 4 minute boat ride but we both really enjoyed it! Again, Disney knocks it out of the park with its animatronics and I love that the characters’ faces are projected onto them. And seeing Olaf move around and ice skate, you completely forget that he’s supposed to be a stationary thing.

P1130766 by smiley519, on Flickr
On the boat

P1130770 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130780 by smiley519, on Flickr

P1130793 by smiley519, on Flickr

We went to check the wait time and saw that it said it was only 15 minutes. We got back in line for ride #2 and only waited 5 minutes! We chatted with a CM who said she had never seen the lines this short and had no idea why but agreed we should take full advantage of it! We asked her what the longest wait time she ever saw posted was and she said she saw it reach 4 hours the first 2 weeks that it opened. Wow. :eek:

P1130794 by smiley519, on Flickr
Josh got the red card so we could accurately measure the non-existent line.

P1130802 by smiley519, on Flickr
I had to snap a picture of the nearly empty queue!

We got off and decided to go one more time and this time was a walk-on! In our boat behind us, two guys said they were also shocked at the non-existent line and they waited 2 hours for FEA the day before, with a posted time of 1 hour. So we got to ride FEA for the first time, 3 times in a row, and had minimal waits each time. :woohoo:

We followed the wait times for the rest of the day on the app and saw that the afternoon had wait times of 45-70 minutes.

We took a picture in the dump shop. It wasn’t until we took the ears off that we realized one side was Elsa and one side was Anna, which was pretty cool.

P1130803 by smiley519, on Flickr

It was then time for our first FP of the day which was Soarin’. This was now our 3rd time on Soarin’ and we got row B1 by luck. Josh had googled what all the destinations were the night before so now we knew what countries and landmarks we were looking at.

We got some pictures with the Finding Nemo statues because Finding Nemo is our favorite movie!

P1130814 by smiley519, on Flickr

We went looking for our favorite little fish in The Seas with Nemo & Friends. I still love how they have the fish swimming in the aquarium alongside Nemo, Marlin, and Dory.

P1130816 by smiley519, on Flickr

We were famished so it was time to stop for lunch. We ate at the Electric Umbrella. I had a hamburger and fries and Josh had the French dip burger, fries, and an iced tea. Both of our meals were good and hit the spot. We were so hungry that I completely forgot to take pictures, but I’m pretty sure you can picture what a QS hamburger and fries look like.

After lunch, we used our second FP and blasted off to Mars on Mission: Space.

P1130820 by smiley519, on Flickr

We did the green route this time for Josh. I was a little nervous about going on with a full stomach but we were both fine. I didn’t really see much of a difference between Orange and Green but Josh felt a lot better after riding Green, so that’s all that matters.

We then did single rider for Test Track (the wait time must have been more than 20 minutes) and we learned that the single rider line doesn’t get to design a car, which was fine with us. However, I scanned my magic band for fun on the sensor and saw that the car I made the night before was still registered! Josh tried his band and his car from this morning was on there too. We thought it was cool that our magic bands saved the car designs so we could still race the other designs in our car.

P1130742 by smiley519, on Flickr
Our 2 cars

Continued in Next Post

"Were all these people waiting for the Mine Train?"Adults Only WDW &US Sept '16 TR! *COMPLETE* 12/22

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"Were all these people waiting for the Mine Train?"Adults Only WDW &US Sept '16 TR! COMPLETE 12/22