13 Days of Disney - Everything We Never Knew We Always Wanted - June 2016 TR Update 1/30

[Jfsag123]

Love, love, love all the costumes and character meets. You are truly, truly one organized lady when it comes to the costumes and the character meets! I aspire to be you in that dept but I doubt it ever happens!

I think I remember hearing about an issue with the move so I'm anxiously awaiting that part of the TR.

Why thank you! I felt really out of it this time because with the surgery rodeo cry right before the trip I wasn't able to prep the way I wanted to, so that's nice to hear. Much of it really is my MIL, though. She sends things in little labeled baggies and I just pack them as they are.

Yes, we did have a bit of an issue with the transfer, but it was pretty minor. I think when I initially posted about it it was still unresolved. I will, of course, share in the next update, but don't get your hopes up because it's not exciting lol.

View attachment 188952 I am absolutely loving your trip report. I had to jump in just to agree about how wonderful It is to meet Mary. My daughter was just trembling with excitement talking to her, too!

Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it. What a wonderful picture! Thanks so much for sharing it. I have to admit I was a little shaky myself the first time we saw her. Who doesn't love Mary?

 

[disny_luvr]

I love the Mary and Bert costumes!!! It looked like a fun morning of meeting a lot of characters.

 

[Jfsag123]

Day 7 – June 12: Epcot/Resort Change, Part 2

Our bellies full, the costumes safely stored in bags in my wheelchair, we decided it was time to hit a ride. And lucky for us, our FP window for Test Track was wide open. Time for our second trip down the track! This time I rode with Cora and Rees rode with Alex.

Here is the car Cora and I designed:

And here’s Rees and Alex’s:

Ours is cooler, right?

And here we are on the ride – weee!!!

The kids love playing in the areas after the rides almost as much as the rides themselves, so we spent some time there.

Next we headed to our second FP+ reservation at Mission: Space. This was to be Alex’s first ride on it. Up to this point we had only ever done the green side because I was concerned that orange might be too intense for Cora. This time she was begging to try orange, but we ended up doing green again since Alex had never been on it and I wanted to ease him into the experience. Again, the kids spent some time playing in the Advanced Training Lab after the ride.

Picture stop!

We decided on a refreshing stop at Club Cool next. I could not trick the kids into trying the Beverly, as they remembered it from last year. Darn!

Next up was our final pre-booked FP of the day – a completely unnecessary one at Figment. But really, what else can you do at Epcot with the tiers? If it saved us 5 minutes that’s fine. This ride never leaves much of an impression on us, but we still do it once every trip. In this case I think the kids actually DO like the after-area more than the ride itself. They love playing with the musical stuff and designing their own Figments. In fact, they have requested that next trip I allow them enough time to make 2 Figments each. Joy.

The Imagination Pavilion is significant to me because it contains my favorite bathrooms in all of WDW. Is it sad that I have a favorite WDW bathroom? But seriously, it is never crowded and always clean – exactly what I’m looking for in a theme park bathroom.

We decided against seeing the new Pixar shorts film in the Magic Eye theater, as we figured it would be too painful at this point. You may think I’m kidding, but I’m not. We are those people who really loved Captain EO. We saw it twice per trip. I remember when I found out I would be going to WDW for the first time as a kid the thing I was most excited about getting to see was Captain EO. Cora has been a HUGE MJ fan since she was 2. A sampling of her MJ love:

I loved getting to share this thing from my childhood with her and Rees and Alex also really enjoyed it. I’m sure we will see the Pixar shorts next time around and have fun when we do, but we needed a mourning period lol.

Anyway, back to the trip! While the kids were playing in the imagination pavilion I hopped on my phone and booked us a 4th FP+ for Living with the Land.

Extremely hot peppers!

Next we headed into Innoventions, as Cora was begging to try Sum of All Thrills. She had never done it before and I had heard rumors it might be closing soon, so we made it happen. Rees took Cora to SoaT while Alex and I decided to see if we were Storm Ready.

This CM was amazing. When we showed up Alex was the only kid there, so he had no one to race. She instead presented the activity to him as a guessing game where he had to figure out which items to get based on clues she gave him. Bonus – she made all of the clues Toy Story related because Alex told her he was a big Toy Story fan. She then raced him herself with the rule that they had to carry all of the items with T-Rex arms like Rex. He was cracking up so much! By this point there were other kids waiting, but she made sure to finish up with Alex and I could tell he felt so special. Small moment that added a lot to our trip.

After we finished getting Storm Ready, we went back over to SoaT to wait for Rees and Cora to finish. Alex tried out the tester ride seat.

And this is Rees and Cora on the ride (I promise). I had another picture in which you could kind of see better that it was them, but the lady in front of me was bending over by that point and may or may not have needed to pull up her shorts a bit…

As we were headed out of Innoventions we were walking past the Storm Struck movie and the CM called to us and said they were about to start the movie and had exactly 4 seats left. We shrugged our shoulders and headed in, as we’d never stopped to see it before. I’m glad we did now, as it seems it will also be gone before our next visit.

As we headed outside the building, we ran into yet another wonderful CM. He was part of the janitorial staff and just walked up and started joking with the kids and asking them trivia questions, which they loved. Came out of nowhere and definitely put smiles on our faces (or cemented the ones that were already there).

At this point we were planning to make our way up to World Showcase to see The American Adventure, but I decided to check the MDE app really quickly to see if I could stumble upon a nice extra FP. Believe it or not there was a actually a Test Track, but not until 6:00pm, by which point we would have already left. However, there was a Mission: Space available for right then. The kids said they really wanted to try the Orange team so we shuffled our plans and went back over to the ride.

I did not enjoy this one. I’m not someone who gets motion sickness, but I didn’t like the feeling of the pressure. I kept involuntarily groaning throughout the experience – I’m sure I was lots of fun to ride with! Of course, everyone else in my family loved it and I was the lone stick in the mud.

After Space we discussed going ahead and heading out. We’d actually gotten the text that our room at BLT was ready while we were eating lunch, which really surprised me, as that was around noon. DVC is not known for early room texts… We decided to hit one more attraction first since it was something we’d never done – Ellen’s Energy Adventure. I rode it as a kid before Ellen was added, but not since. It was great because we were able to have an entire row to ourselves so I got to put my foot up. The kids actually really liked it and walked out laughing and shouting “stupid Judy!”

At this point we left the park. One more picture since we would not be using the International Gateway again this trip.

We stopped on the way out and left a comment card for all of the wonderful CM’s we had encountered that day, then made our way back through BCV, as our car was still in the BC parking lot. Cora was pitifully sad at this point. She loved BCV so much and desperately didn’t want to leave. Alex was fine with the move, as BLT is his favorite and he had been looking forward to it all week.

Once we got to BLT Cora remembered that she loves it there too and was excited. Here was our room number:

And here was our view from the balcony:

And a few room pics:

We were on the 5th floor right in the middle of the inside of the C. I loved this location because we had easy access to the Contemporary since the bridge is on the 5th floor, a great view of Bay Lake, and I was able to see the family when they were at the pool (which they were within a couple of hours of our arrival) as I sat on the balcony.

We had a very slight issue with our transfer. We called down to bell services to have our bags that we’d sent from BCV brought up. They came up quickly, but I realized we were missing all of our food. I called back down and they said they would try to figure out what happened. They told us that if they weren’t able to find our stuff, they would replace everything we had. We had planned to eat in the room that evening so we were kind of in limbo with not knowing when or if we’d have our food back that night. It ended up being fine. The food had never been sent from BLT, but instead had been left refrigerated there. They had it sent over as soon as they found it and the whole issue was resolved within a couple of hours of when it started.

That night we watched the Electric Water Pageant before turning in for the night.

Needed good sleep to be up for rope drop again the next day – our first walk to the Magic Kingdom!

 

[disny_luvr]

Wow! You pack a lot into your days! I'm exhausted reading about everything you did.

My boys love playing in the TT play area, too. They really enjoy the games there, especially the one where they can race their cars.

Your room at BLT is NICE! I don't think I've ever seen a room there before.

 

[Jfsag123]

Wow! You pack a lot into your days! I'm exhausted reading about everything you did.

My boys love playing in the TT play area, too. They really enjoy the games there, especially the one where they can race their cars.

Your room at BLT is NICE! I don't think I've ever seen a room there before.

Ha! It doesn't feel exhausting while we're doing it, but we do tend to collapse at the end of each day.

The racing of your designed car is definitely a highlight of the Test Track play area.

We love the rooms at BLT! A lot of people say they find them too small and cramped, but we've now done 2 6 night stays there with 4 people and no problems. Of course, the 1 bedrooms are supposed to be huge, but also come with a huge jump in price.

 

[ariane37]

Wow you found some really good CM's that day! I love what the Storm Struck CM did with having only Alex there

You've also sold me on NEVER trying Mission: Space Orange lol.

And, the pictures of Cora channeling MJ are fabulous

 

[Jfsag123]

Wow you found some really good CM's that day! I love what the Storm Struck CM did with having only Alex there

You've also sold me on NEVER trying Mission: Space Orange lol.

And, the pictures of Cora channeling MJ are fabulous

Lol! Unintended consequence. I promised the kids that I would ride it once per trip from now on, as that's our little family pact. We each agree to ride everything at least once so no one misses out on a favorite because someone else doesn't like it. However, I don't intend to like it!

Thanks on the Cora MJ pics. That's just the tip of the iceberg. She's got an MJ pillowcase, blanket, lamp, framed picture and wall decal in her room, as well as figurines and trading cards. She would have fit in so well in the 80's!

 

[ajjoplin1]

We are Texan through and through and start to get a little crazy if we go too long without tacos. Without our typical Tex-Mex places and taquerias to turn to, the Mexico QS had to do.

Love it! I'm a Texan too, and living in Louisiana, most people do not know what a taqueria is! Thanks for representing! LOL

 

[ALEXandFAB]

Oh my goodness, what a treat to run into all those characters!

The MJ love is very sweet

Great BLT room! The view is .

Mission: Space orange is something I will never ever ever do again. EVER.

 

[Jfsag123]

Love it! I'm a Texan too, and living in Louisiana, most people do not know what a taqueria is! Thanks for representing! LOL

Love it! Taquerias are one of the great joys in life. Spread that Texan awesomeness to those Louisiana folks!

Mission: Space orange is something I will never ever ever do again. EVER.

I wish! I had a headache for a while after. I'm going to have to schedule my day to build in time to recover after next time lol

 

[1Grumpy9]

Figment is something I do every time I am there, but I do wish they would bring back the original.

I love the pictures of Cora and her love of MJ.

Sum of all thrills is something is something I haven't done and I guess I won't doing it either since it will be closed by the time I get there.

 

[ArielSRL]

OK, that was a long update! Go you! I read it a couple days ago but haven't had time to reply properly!

Through your update I see a bit more Epcot potential for my boys than I originally saw. Maybe not so much the rides but all the places to play in the ride dump areas! I'll have to look at my schedule for next year and make sure I build some play time in!

I'm hoping I can talk AJ into Test Track next year. He really thought he wanted to ride it this year because of seeing it on the planning DVD but after he didn't enjoy 7DMT, I figured it wasn't a good choice for him...lol. Of course, we never made it over there anyway, so no big deal.

Not a fan of MS. I've never done it and I never plan to. I don't like simulator rides and I don't like confined spaces. Horrible combo, in my opinion.

We definitely need to hit Journey and Club Cool next year. They ended up on the chopping block this year. Love the MJ costumes, though I think I saw them (or one of them) in your PTR maybe?

Great CM interactions! We had some really great ones on our trip as well. One that really sticks out to me was a janitor/custodian at the MK. To be honest, I don't think we had a negative CM experience, for the most part. I am always happy to see them take time with the littles.

So you guys ended up missing American Adventure? I love that show. But we missed it this past trip. Of course, I had wondered if Will might get restless during it so it might be best we skipped it.

And we did (purposely) skip Ellen. It's just so long! LOL. I always fall asleep in it.

Cora looks very pained in her photo but I'm glad she got over it quickly. I'm glad that the transfer incident was minor and was resolved quickly. Love the view of your room and the location of BLT. It does seem a tad cramped to me just from looking at floor plans but there are so many other pluses. For us, it might not be the best choice while we have a big double stroller to store in our room but it will definitely be on a future list. I do like how the kitchenette is set up with the little galley going into it. In June, we are hoping for VWL, as you know, but the next trip, I am going to try for BCV as my first choice, I think.

Love, love the EWP. Hopefully we will catch a glimpse of that from our resort next June!

 

[Jfsag123]

Figment is something I do every time I am there, but I do wish they would bring back the original.

I love the pictures of Cora and her love of MJ.

Sum of all thrills is something is something I haven't done and I guess I won't doing it either since it will be closed by the time I get there.

Yes, I can't imagine going and not doing Figment, but it never really feels special. At least I've learned to hold my breath during a certain part of the ride lol.

Thanks on the Cora/MJ pics. The love is strong.

I'm in the same boat with SoaT, since I just watched this time because someone needed to stay off with Alex, who was too short. Oh well.

 

[Jfsag123]

OK, that was a long update! Go you! I read it a couple days ago but haven't had time to reply properly!

It was super long! lol I realized after I posted it that I'd gotten a little carried away...

Through your update I see a bit more Epcot potential for my boys than I originally saw. Maybe not so much the rides but all the places to play in the ride dump areas! I'll have to look at my schedule for next year and make sure I build some play time in!

Hooray for developing Epcot love! It seriously was both of my kids' favorite park after our first trip when Alex was just 2 and that was due in large part to every ride having the play/activity areas after them. It was like a theme park/museum/play place combined into one, which they went nuts for.

We definitely need to hit Journey and Club Cool next year. They ended up on the chopping block this year. Love the MJ costumes, though I think I saw them (or one of them) in your PTR maybe?

Make sure you get video of your kids trying the Beverly. And it is highly possible you saw the pics in my PTR...or on FB...I lose track of where I've posted things. But yes, with a 6 year history of MJ devotion I've had plenty of opportunities to plaster pics everywhere.

Great CM interactions! We had some really great ones on our trip as well. One that really sticks out to me was a janitor/custodian at the MK. To be honest, I don't think we had a negative CM experience, for the most part. I am always happy to see them take time with the littles.

I don't think we had a bad one this time either. And we only had one bad one on each of our previous trips.

So you guys ended up missing American Adventure? I love that show. But we missed it this past trip. Of course, I had wondered if Will might get restless during it so it might be best we skipped it.

We missed it! And Alex and Rees have still never seen it. Cora and I saw it once while Rees stayed out with Alex because he was napping in the stroller. I can definitely see a 2 year old getting restless during it, but it's a great show. We hope to all catch it next time!

Cora looks very pained in her photo but I'm glad she got over it quickly. I'm glad that the transfer incident was minor and was resolved quickly. Love the view of your room and the location of BLT. It does seem a tad cramped to me just from looking at floor plans but there are so many other pluses. For us, it might not be the best choice while we have a big double stroller to store in our room but it will definitely be on a future list. I do like how the kitchenette is set up with the little galley going into it. In June, we are hoping for VWL, as you know, but the next trip, I am going to try for BCV as my first choice, I think.

Cora is a big ole drama queen! It's strange that we've never felt cramped in the BLT room, but I guess it just suits us. We stored a stroller in it last year. There's a little area near the room entrance where the connecting door is that's perfect for holding stuff like that. Might be able to make it work once you switch to a single. We were stroller-free for the first time this year and it was like a whole new world (no pun intended).

Love, love the EWP. Hopefully we will catch a glimpse of that from our resort next June!

I hope that for you as well! It was great being able to watch it in our PJs.

 

[720L]

I'm also one of the few who loved Captain EO. My kids loved laughing at the 80's dancing/music. I was a huge Michael Jackson fan (another thing the kids find hysterical). Sad its gone. Love your daughters MJ costumes! They used to have Captain EO tshirts & I was always going to buy one....wish I would have .

 

[Jfsag123]

I'm also one of the few who loved Captain EO. My kids loved laughing at the 80's dancing/music. I was a huge Michael Jackson fan (another thing the kids find hysterical). Sad its gone. Love your daughters MJ costumes! They used to have Captain EO tshirts & I was always going to buy one....wish I would have .

I wish I had bought one too! Glad to meet another EO fan - there aren't enough of us.

 

[Jfsag123]

Day 8 – June 13: Magic Kingdom, Part 1

We have never gone to MK for RD on a Monday, as we typically follow crowd calendar recommendations at least somewhat. We have hopped over in the evening after spending the day somewhere else, but this was our first Monday MK experience. We decided to throw out the crowd calendars for this one day because it was our first opportunity to walk over to MK from BLT. And just…wow. I have never seen a RD this crowded. We are used to watching the Welcome Show with enough space around us for elbow room. Not today. The best part was when a woman who had to be in her 50’s at least basically crawled over my wheelchair and stepped directly onto my obviously injured foot so she could get a better angle to take her picture of the Welcome Show. Seriously, I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: this trip increased my respect for folks who have to do every trip in a wheelchair/ECV by leaps and bounds. Never felt more invisible than when I was screaming in pain and this woman took absolutely no notice. I had a few choice words for her, but kept it relatively clean so as not to spoil the magic.

Because I figured this day would be more crowded than what we are used to, I planned to start us in Adventureland rather than the more popular RD destinations of Fantasyland or Tomorrowland. It turned out to be a good call. As soon as we crossed that bridge it was back to feeling like we had the park to ourselves.

Can you tell from my terrible picture where we went first?

I’ve gotten the feeling from these boards that Jungle Cruise is a love it or hate it kind of attraction. Well, we love it. We like to sit right up by the Skipper and greatly enjoy the onslaught of corniness. Good times.

Where did we go next?

No trip is complete without a ride on Pirates! All the effects seemed to be working well and we got no splash into the boat, which I was thankful for.

Next we headed into Frontierland for a quick ride on Big Thunder. Normally we would hit Splash here too, but we had a FP scheduled for it later in the day. We finished Big Thunder with a good portion of the first park hour still ahead of us, but we decided to make our way over to the new(ish) meet and greet spot for Woody and Jessie so we could be close to the front of the line when they came out. I liked it better when they met behind Splash Mountain, but who asked me.

There was one person already waiting when we got there and we enjoyed chatting with her to pass the time. She was also a regular visitor and obviously knew her way around the parks.

Woody and Jessie!

Like with Buzz, the kids tend to split off here. Alex will always hog Woody, as that is his beloved, so Cora ends up hanging with whoever he’s paired with. I don’t know how it came up, but Rees ended up mentioning that Alex’s room at home is done up completely like Andy’s room and showed the characters pictures on his phone. It made for some nice reactions.

One more shot for the road.

Next we headed over to Fantasyland to kill some time before our super early lunch reservation. We saw Philharmagic (one of my favorite things in all of WDW), rode the Carousel, tried to get the sword out of the stone (no luck) and browsed a bit in Sir Mickey’s. Finally it was time to eat.

Once again I ask, where are we?

Yep, it’s Be Our Guest! We’d had dinner there on our last trip, but had not tried lunch. Bonus: this time I actually remembered to take food pics.

I had the croque monsieur and I’m pretty sure Rees had the roast beef sandwich, sort of seen across the table.

I’m struggling a bit to remember what the kids ate. I think Alex’s is the turkey meatloaf (pictured first) and Cora’s is the pork. Could be wrong, though.

It was good and quite filling. I could only eat half of my sandwich.

Stopped for one more (EXTREMELY glamorous) picture on the way out.

To be continued!

 

[ArielSRL]

Glad you were able to outmanuveur the crowds. I'm planning for 3 RDs at MK next year (none on a Monday) so I'll have to figure out the most busy day and head to Adventureland and Frontierland on that day. And I will definitely need to figure out where the M&G for Woody and Jessie is (in June) so we can get in line for that. Looks like a great M&G and I expect you will post some Andy's (Alex) room photos at some point so we can all see???

Loving the BOG lunch. It's just such wonderful theming inside. I plan to book us lunch again next June. I flirted with a PPO breakfast but I think its just too much money for breakfast (since we are paying OOP) and with them changing opening to 8am last June, I don't want to risk it this upcoming trip.

Looking forward to more!

 

[disny_luvr]

We never go to the MK on a Monday because it's always the park recommended to avoid, but on our trip this summer we ventured to the MK on Monday (June 20th) because it was my boys' birthday. It was crowded but not as bad as I was anticipating; we survived!

I love the Jungle Cruise, as does my DH, but my boys do not. We skipped it this trip and I wish we hadn't.

I'm glad your kids got to meet Woody and Jessie. I bet they loved the bedroom pics!

Lunch at BOG looks yummy!

 

[Jfsag123]

Glad you were able to outmanuveur the crowds. I'm planning for 3 RDs at MK next year (none on a Monday) so I'll have to figure out the most busy day and head to Adventureland and Frontierland on that day. And I will definitely need to figure out where the M&G for Woody and Jessie is (in June) so we can get in line for that. Looks like a great M&G and I expect you will post some Andy's (Alex) room photos at some point so we can all see???

Loving the BOG lunch. It's just such wonderful theming inside. I plan to book us lunch again next June. I flirted with a PPO breakfast but I think its just too much money for breakfast (since we are paying OOP) and with them changing opening to 8am last June, I don't want to risk it this upcoming trip.

Looking forward to more!

I'm not planning on a Monday RD at MK next year either! We will probably end up there, but only after hopping over in the evening. Woody and Jessie are in front of the river across from the Country Bears/Trading Post area. Used to be Chip & Dale's spot and Woody and Jessie were back behind Splash, which was a lot better, IMO. However, we still love meeting them wherever they are!

I think BOG is beautiful! Beauty and the Beast has been my favorite of the princess movies since I saw it as a kid and that whole area of the park is just perfectly themed. One of my happy places! I won't do the breakfast either, but we will probably do lunch and dinner again next year.

Here are a few pics of Alex's room, though they don't show everything. He also has a toy chest painted to look like Andy's.

We never go to the MK on a Monday because it's always the park recommended to avoid, but on our trip this summer we ventured to the MK on Monday (June 20th) because it was my boys' birthday. It was crowded but not as bad as I was anticipating; we survived!

I love the Jungle Cruise, as does my DH, but my boys do not. We skipped it this trip and I wish we hadn't.

I'm glad your kids got to meet Woody and Jessie. I bet they loved the bedroom pics!

Lunch at BOG looks yummy!

That's right, your boys and I share a birthday! I forgot about that. I would gladly put up with MK on a Monday if it meant getting to go on my birthday. It really wasn't that bad after we got into the park, but there was a noticeable difference on walkways.

Aw, make those boys do the cruise! lol But really, I do understand why some don't like it. You'll have to catch it next time!

There was no way they would have let us miss seeing Woody and Jessie! And now that their meeting place is out in the open, we couldn't pull off "forgetting."

Lunch was yummy! We still prefer dinner, but would definitely do lunch again in the future too.