Completed 1/13 - Monoraaaaaaaail! - August 2023 Trip Report

[Araminta18]

Goodbye Art of Animation, Hello Magic Kingdom! - Monday, August 14, 2023 (part 1)​

It was checkout day at Art of Animation - goodbye to the Skyliner! But I wasn't sad because we were moving to the Contemporary. Super bougie.

I got up at 7 and was ready to try for a Tron boarding group, but my stupid phone blacked out right at 7 am (i have the brightness turned all the way down in the mornings; normally my phone display will dim after 20 seconds and then turn off after 30 seconds, but when the brightness is all the way down I don't have that visual signal that the screen is gonna turn off). AAAAH! Definitely panicking! I did still manage to get a boarding group (BG 75), but I wasn't sure if it would be called before I had to go to my class, so I bought a fastpass for Tron (for 11:05), as well as one for Seven Dwarves Mine Train. No Genie+ for us today, since I was going to be in class and Trevor was ok without it.

We packed up and were ready to head out by 8:15, but when we called Bell Services to see if they could bring us a luggage cart (cause we were soooooo far away from the main building) they basically said nope, tough luck. So rather than have someone (let's be real, Trevor ) do the 15/20 minute roundtrip to get the luggage cart and bring it back, we (me) just decided to grab the bags and walk them to the front.

But! We got super lucky - there was a luggage cart just hanging out right by the elevator, on the ground floor (we were on the third), so we got to use that.

Trudging to the front.

We got there, dropped off our bags at Bell Services for them to be transferred over, said a last goodbye to the Art of Animation...

Love that gorgeous chandelier!

And then off to the bus stop to head to Magic Kingdom! The plan was to do the morning at Magic Kingdom and then head over to the Contemporary for lunch before I had to check in for my class. So off to the bus stop we headed; we were on a bus by 8:40am and were on our way!

Someone was having a bad day though - right near the MK we passed a car crash. I hope everyone was ok!


We got dropped off a little after 9 am, and made our way through the MUCH NICER security checkpoints - seriously, the new security is SO much nicer. Love it.


Then we found these lines at the tapstiles...which makes sense, the park opened at 9, we were getting there just slightly after...it's our own problem, really.

I once again picked the slower line, but it was still only about 5 minutes. Not too bad! And then we were inside!

The Dapper Dans were just finishing up their set...oh well!

Love them, even if we did miss most of it (almost entirely all of it).

We didn't really have a plan, so we just started meandering over to Haunted Mansion. Cause why not?

Look at that pretty castle, with the Mickey pumpkins!

We found a photographer there by the bridge, and got some pictures.

I like this new magic shot with Naveen - fun!

Over at Haunted Mansion, it was posting at 15 minute wait, so of course we hopped in line!

I grabbed this pic of Tom Sawyer Island while walking through the queue. It was a walkon, as it should be that time of the morning.

We had a great ride with the ghosts, as always.

I took a couple clips.

And for our ride photo, we decided to do the tea party.

I appreciate how Trevor leans into it.

As we left, they had a photographer out in front so of course we had to stop.

 

[Araminta18]

The Skyliner is great! I hope they extend it to Disney Springs one day. That would make getting over there so much easier!

Right?! Skyliner to Disney Springs would be AMAZING.

 

[MPD]

Just wanted to say how much I enjoy reading your trip reports! Y'all do so many fun things and seem to have a great time.

 

[SimplyGoofy]

The Cars section is SO neat - it’s the only section of AoA that I missed touring. Now that I’ve seen Cars so many times (my daughter watched it nonstop for a while) seeing those characters is SO much fun.

My goodness, I can’t believe your stay at AoA is already over! It seems you really enjoyed staying there.

Love that gorgeous chandelier!

I love it, too!

 

[Araminta18]

Magical Moment on the Carousel - Monday, August 14, 2023 (part 2)​

Pictures done, we headed out of Haunted Mansion, though I stopped to take a picture of the Pet Graveyard - can you spot Mr Toad?

Way there in the back. Fun little easter egg.

We looked in Memento Mori for a moment, and then headed towards Fantasyland, where we saw that Peter Pan was posting a fairly short wait!

45 minutes! Not too bad for 9:45!

But there was no one we could see in the outside queue, so I was like "hmmmm, maybe it's not actually 45 minutes?" and I always like the Peter Pan standby queue, so we figured we'd hop in line, and see what was up. If it ended up being long we could hop out!

Well, guess where we found the line?
That's right, in the nursery! Boom! No way it was 45 minutes.

So we had some fun playing and enjoying the theming -


blocks!

Seriously, I love that queue. We always have a good time. And it turned out to be only a 10 minute wait! Awesome.

After Peter Pan, we kept wandering into Fantasyland, and decided to go for the Carousel - no wait, and always fun.

We only had to wait for the current cycle to finish. Woot!

But once it finished, there was a little bit of a delay, but for the best reason - the Stepsisters decided they wanted to ride! We ended up getting a seat right behind Anastasia, and had a great time - the sisters are so funny. And it got better - Peter Pan ended up coming out too, and was heckling the stepsisters as we rode. Love it!

The video is definitely long, but it was just such a fun moment. One lady had a Loungefly with the stepsisters on it so was holding it up and showing it to Anastasia as we rode by, which was why Anastasia was screaming. And then afterwards they were walking around a bit and a kid tried to hug Anastasia and she was super awkward with it - so funny. The stepsisters are awesome.

Then we were hungry! And coincidentally (not really coincidentally ) we were right near Gaston's Tavern - cinnamon rolls as big as your head! So we headed there but then I saw there was a photographer right outside Little Mermaid with no line and I love that castle. So really we had no choice but to head there.

A lovely sunny day - SO HOT. Like seriously - absolutely bonkers hot. But any day at Disney is a good day, right?

They also turned one of the photopass pictures into this cute little video, as if we were in Ariel's grotto!

Never seen that one before.

Ok, now cinnamon rolls!

Basically no line, which was nice.

We got a cinnamon roll, milk, and the LeFou's brew.


We, like everyone else, was scoping out spots inside in the a/c, but we managed to snag one without too much trouble, and then just enjoyed our snack and sitting around. Our Tron fastpass was coming up soon!

 

[Araminta18]

Just wanted to say how much I enjoy reading your trip reports! Y'all do so many fun things and seem to have a great time.

aw, thank you! That's so nice - I'm glad you enjoy it!

The Cars section is SO neat - it’s the only section of AoA that I missed touring. Now that I’ve seen Cars so many times (my daughter watched it nonstop for a while) seeing those characters is SO much fun.

My goodness, I can’t believe your stay at AoA is already over! It seems you really enjoyed staying there.


I love it, too!

Oh bummer! It is such a cool section - definitely worth a visit even if you're not staying there, especially now that the skyliner makes it so easy to visit.

Yea, just a 2 night stay, but it was filled with all sorts of magic.

 

[SimplyGoofy]

What great luck with Peter Pan! (And what an inflated wait time!)

Ah, the stepsisters are the best! Peter Pan heckling them makes it even better!

 

[Araminta18]

Umpteenth Ride on Seven Dwarfs and First Ride on Tron! - Monday, August 14, 2023 (part 3)​

Before we left Gaston's Tavern, I noticed that Gaston's chair was empty so had to get a pic of Trevor channeling his inner Gaston.

Hopefully he doesn't get any ideas about wanting a chair like that at home!

I wanted to look in that gift shop right there but it was closed.

We decided to quickly do Little Mermaid, cause why not.

Shelfie! I always like to sing along with it when we ride Little Mermaid...

Up next? No, not Tron, but rather Little Mermaid! We'd bought the Individual Lightning Lane but look at this line:

Took us 7 minutes to get from the entrance to this spot:

Ended up being another 10 min or so. Goodness gracious they need to fix that - if I'm paying I shouldn't have to wait 15/20 minutes. Lightning Lane...a downgrade in every way.

But at least the ride was still fun! And we got the last row, so that was a bonus too.


Short, but still good.

Then it was time for our Tron fastpass!! Yay! This was the Individual Lightning Lane that we'd bought because we got a later boarding group, which turned out to be a good thing because our group didn't get called before we needed to go. But off to Tron we went!

As we got there they had a photographer off to the side with a prop, so we stopped, of course.

I can imagine how cool this must be in the dark! Still good during the day.

Then we hopped in line - it wasn't too bad, especially when compared to the virtual queue which was way out there in the sun.

Well, first I stopped at the test seat to try it - I was a bit worried about fitting on the ride! The test seat was a bit hard to tell; it seemed like I'd *probably* fit but maybe not quite? My experience with test seats is that they're never 100% accurate - some are more forgiving than the actual ride while others are less. So my plan was to still try for the bike. *crosses fingers*
Anyways, after getting in line, it only took about 5 minutes for us to be in the pre-show, which was pretty neat! I love the effect of getting "digitized" into the World of Tron. I don't love the wait after you put your stuff in a locker - they have two lanes (very reminiscent of Big Thunder) but you get directed to a lane (you don't get to pick). I swear we got sent to the slow line every single time!

But soon enough we were ready to board and I was trying to fit on the lightcycle. And I fit! It was definitely tight, and I had to have the CM push the back down to get it to click, but I fit! Those leg restraints man are a killer - it was actually kind of painful on one of my legs but it was worth it.


I 100% forgot that it was a launch coaster - and I love that they give you a picture from both sides! Awesome.

It's definitely a short coaster, but it's fun. We liked it a lot - the beginning part that's outside is awesome, and then inside there are some fun effects (no spoilers, but the one thing with the mirror - that was neat).

Highly recommend!

 

[Araminta18]

What great luck with Peter Pan! (And what an inflated wait time!)

Ah, the stepsisters are the best! Peter Pan heckling them makes it even better!

I was so surprised when I saw the 45 minute wait but then no one in the part of the queue that I could see. Definitely paid off to try!

100% agree - the stepsisters are the best! that must be the most fun character to be, cause you can be mean/kind of snarky and it's not only fine, but desired!

 

[Araminta18]

Finally Making Our Way to the Contemporary! - Monday, August 14, 2023 (part 4)​

We got off a little bit before noon, so it was time to head over to the Contemporary for lunch! We had a reservation at Steakhouse 71 at 12:15, so I was a *bit* worried about being late, but I wasn't gonna miss Tron! So off we got and were moving a bit quickly, when...I got distracted by photos. I can see you being so surprised.


So I made sure to watch Tron (the old one - I still haven't seen the new Tron) before we went on this trip, but I still have no idea what this magic shot is about. Oh well.

Ok, photos done, it was 11:55, and we really needed to get our skates on to get over to the Contemporary! So when we saw the Headless Horseman photo op open with no line, we skipped it, right?

Are you new here? Of course not.

Ok but then we really got going and didn't stop. I promise. We decided to walk over to the Contemporary, despite the heat.

I think this decision was a function of not having good monorail experiences in the past, cause knowing what I do now, we absolutely should have taken the monorail. Oh well! I had my sun umbrella, so that helped. A bit.

It ended up being about a 10 minute walk to the Contemporary from MK - we got there at 12:16 pm. And 'cause I wasn't sure how long our lunch would take and I had to check in for my class at 2, we (I) decided to check in to the hotel first. Also cause we were passing the check in desk to get to Steakhouse 71.

We got all checked in, no issues with the dates or anything (the day before we left I'd checked MDE and our reservation dates had changed to be Aug 13 -17th, not Aug 14-21st like I had reserved so I'd had to get that all fixed and was *slightly* worried about it), but our room wasn't available yet (womp womp). But now, lunch time!



We were about 5 minutes late, but I'd decided I no longer cared. We checked in and they directed us to wait til we got called, so we headed to the seating area/lounge to the right there.
Look at those fun chandeliers! Also I literally just noticed that the tv there is playing WDW Today, my channel of choice at DisneyWorld.

I literally only had enough time to take a picture of Trevor sitting there in the lounge with me when we got called back to our table. Yay! We were both hungry, and not hungry at the same time - the heat man. I lack words to express how hot it was and how it just sucked the life out of everyone. Our waiter was awesome and brought us ice waters ASAP. But I also got the Sunshine Punch: orange sherbet, sprite, grenadine.

It looked pretty! Was a bit overful to mix it all up so had to like eat a bunch of the sherbet.

Trevor got root beer.

Notice the water cup is full of ice, cause all the water has been chugged! Steakhouse 71 really likes the ice in their drinks, which is...not my favorite thing, despite the heat.

We got the potato brioche as an appetizer:

So pretty! And this was good - a little bit dry, but it looked so good, and the butter made up for the dryness. The red stuff was "roasted garlic tomato spread" - it tasted mostly of tomato, and not so much of garlic. Not bad, but I prefer the butter.

We ordered our mains, and while we were waiting I noticed this artwork on the wall:
Pretty castle!

 

[Araminta18]

Finishing Lunch and Enjoying the Contemporary! - Monday, August 14, 2023 (part 5)​

What did we get for our entrees? Well, we decided to split the Stack Burger. Everyone on here has raved about it, and while some of the other things (like the gourmet grilled cheese) looked good, we just weren't up for a ton of food, so splitting the burger seemed like just the right fit.


How was it? DELICIOU. You guys were right about the stack burger - just so so so good. I would have liked just a tad bit more food, but at this point a whole burger probably would have been too much, so I was happy to err on the side of slightly too little. It was just so good.

So yea, highly recommend the lunch at Steakhouse 71 - it was delicious. And a/c is always a good thing. I also love the artwork - overall the restaurant decor is a bit spare, but they had some awesome artwork.


It was about 1:15 pm at this point, so about 45 minutes to kill before my class. We were really sad at this point that the room wasn't ready, but since this was also our first time at the Contemporary, we headed up to that main concourse to look around. Got our first glimpse of the famed Mary Blair mural!

After wandering around a bit, we grabbed some baby wipes from the gift shop and I went and freshened up a bit with them in the bathroom (just wiping off all the sweat, etc) since I wouldn't be able to do so in the room before class, and we just kind of sat and relaxed on one of the benches there for a few minutes, til it was time for me to go check in.

Trevor then walked me down, and dropped me off! And this is where the report will diverge...I won't go in to *too* much detail on the class, but I'll add some little bits and try and keep you up to date on what Trevor was doing. Spoiler - he doesn't remember, and didn't take notes, so we'll see how well he documented it in pictures! On the bright side that hopefully means no more 11/12 updates per day. Or on the sad side, if you enjoyed all the parts of the update for Saturday.

Anyways! I got checked in for class and really the first half hour was just check in, snacks, etc. I felt a little awkward because the facilitators were all dressed up on the fancier side of business casual and most of the people already there were business casual, while I was rocking my park day attire... but the facilitators were great--one had come over to look at my button (I was wearing "Adventure is Out There!") and I'd apologized a bit for my casual outfitt and she was like "are you comfortable? Then no worries!" I appreciated it, and it was just one example of how the facilitators were the whole time.

We got the workbook and the fancy waterbottle to keep, and I don't know if you can see it but there is Mickey glitter (including castles!) on the tables. Brilliant.

They had a table set up on the side with cheeses and crackers, so of *course* I got a plate.

After I finished my plate, we had about 5 min before starting and I realized that I didn't have my magic band on! And I definitely had it on when we left the park! So I started freaking out a bit and I ran to the front desk to see if someone had turned it in and after a few minutes the lady was like "nope" so I decided to try the bench where we had been resting, just in case, and there it was on the ground under the bench! *phew* That was a fun little "get your heart rate up" exercise.

Then at 2:30, the class started. So...over to Trevor! I'm reconstructing this from photos and texts...we'll see how it goes. Side note--normally when we're at Disney, we're together so we don't text each other very much except for the "here's where I am" texts. I've been enjoying reading our text conversations while Trevor's in the park and I'm in class - a nice fun way to relive it.

The plan was for Trevor to go back into MK to ride Tron, but he apparently wandered a bit around the main floor lobby and was taking some pictures.



See for all the noise about me liking the artwork, it's clearly not *just* me.

 

[erinch]

I love every bit of your updates!

 

[Araminta18]

Riding Tron One More Time! - Monday, August 14, 2023 (part 6)​

One more picture of the artwork for you -

I think this is midcentury modern? Whatever it is I wouldn't want to decorate my house with it, but I like seeing it.

Anyways, Trevor was getting ready to head back to the park but it was storming a little bit -

However it was supposed to stop so Trevor decided to take the first monorail ride of the trip!

He didn't realize (and to be fair, I didn't know either) that the monorail from the Contemporary goes to TTC, then the Poly, then GF, and THEN Magic Kingdom. So that also gave a bit of time for the storm to clear up. And right as he was texting me that they were pulling away from the Grand Floridian, I was checking on MDE and found out that we had a room assigned! It was killing me to have a room and not be able to check it out...oh well. Patience is a virtue, right?

And yep, once Trevor disembarked the monorail, it had indeed stopped raining. Small benefits. He said there was a bunch of people heading towards Tron though, enough that he didn't want to stop and get a drink at the water fountain and lose the head start he had on all of them, especially cause this was the VQ. And it worked out - this was from when he first got in line:

So only not under the canopy for a little bit. Good timing!!

This time he decided to keep his phone out, so he filmed a little bit of the boarding area:

It ended up being about a 35 minute wait, but pretty soon he was getting on (2nd row from the front).


I love how the ride photo still caught him off guard, with his eyes closed.

Also sneaky Trevor taking some pics on the ride!


It's definitely a unique ride! (which I realize is funny to say considering it's an exact copy of the ride in Shanghai, but it's unique to Disney World...and maybe even Orlando). I was glad he got to ride it again, and so proud of all the pictures he took without me to prompt him!

I also mashed together a couple of our clips from both Tron rides today - such a fun ride:

After Tron, Trevor was planning to head back to the hotel, get our bags, put our treats in the fridge, and rest a bit before heading off to his nighttime plans. Though he did say he would see if anything fun had a short wait on the way out, and I told him he could text me pictures of any ride entrances and I could sanity check the posted waits for him. So he sent me a picture of Space Mountain, which had the line just outside the entrance, and I was like "nooooooope don't do it." So he didn't. He did see Mr Scrooge drawn in water on the pavement though!

Sorry it's upside down - when I rotated it to be right side up it looked weird... But I've never seen Scrooge before! Only some of the fab five, so that was neat.

Meanwhile my class was going fine - they knew how to motivate us to participate. Most of the time when you answered a question or made a comment, you got a fun little toy figure! Today was the fab five:

Definitely made it more fun to participate, though a few people were...not good at realizing they didn't need to speak up *every* time.

 

[Araminta18]

I love every bit of your updates!

thank you! I'm glad

 

[blabbermouth]

Reading along and enjoying! I'm impressed with what you got done that day as it otherwise seemed pretty relaxed!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

I can see you being so surprised.

Shocked, really.

Your pictures turned out well, though!

Your lunch looked very tasty! I don’t think I’ll have a chance to visit Steakhouse 71 anytime soon, but I’d love to try it sometime!

That was a fun little "get your heart rate up" exercise.

Yikes! I’m so glad you found it (and so quickly!).

Looks like you had a great start to your class and Trevor had fun at MK. I’m glad the monorail ride timed so well with the afternoon rain shower!

 

[Araminta18]

Room Tour! - Monday, August 14, 2023 (part 7)​

Trevor continued to make his way out of the park, but in a sign that I have trained him well, stopped for pictures because there was no line! And one of them was the superzoom shot - I wasn't jealous as all when I saw that one pop up on my phone.

I love that they give you the pictures as well as the video - this is such a fun picture of the hub/castle.

Hi Trevor!

While Trevor was enjoying the lack of bright sunshine in MK, I got a break from class and decided to take advantage of it to run over to our room in the Garden Wing and check it out! The break was 15 minutes, and we were meeting on the second floor, in the room just to the right of the escalators down from the main concourse, and right across from the outside stairs. So it seemed like I'd have plenty of time to make it to the room and back - we got room 5320. Third floor - it's the red room in the picture below. The wing closest to the main tower is the one in the bottom left that has that corner slant in it.

So not as far as it could have been, but not as close as I was hoping either. But again for the reduced conference rate I really couldn't complain!

Heading into the Garden Wing I got my first real taste of the Incredibles theming:

There were similar style pieces all throughout the hallways - I love it!

Then I made it to our room:

Definitely bigger than our room at Art of Animation. And I love the Edna and Frozone pillows - though they were clearly decorative, made out of what felt like vinyl?


Look at that fun lamp at the end of the couch!

This is the view behind me from where I took the other two pictures. Nice size wardrobe there by the door; and then look at the prints behind the shelves there!

Bathroom - no tub, sadly.

View into the toilet room, just in case you were curious...

 

[Araminta18]

Room Tour Continued - Monday August 14, 2023 (part 8)​

In the room with the toilet they had this awesome Jack Jack piece!


Despite the lack of a tub, I appreciated the double sink.

And look at those H2O products!

We didn't have a balcony, really - I think they call it a Juliet balcony? The door opened but there was a rail right there. Nice view though.


I kept looking around and finding new fun details:

This was inside the nightstand drawer.

And on the lampshade, there was the monorail!


It matched the monorail on the elevator:

(also side note that elevator that you first run into when you enter the garden wing from the main tower is SUPER janky. Slow and very loud and not gonna lie I totally thought we were gonna get stuck in there a couple times).

I was a bit sad that the beverage cooler was so small and didn't have any door storage - how would I fit all our stuff into the fridge?


And of course the requisite Mickey towel on the bed:


I'll be honest, I was a bit sad to see this welcome message on the TV, because it meant it was the new smart TVs that didn't have the WDW today tv channel with the park hours, etc.

(also the masks on the wallpaper!)

One last detail - I opened up the wardrobe and found this great wallpaper!

As if their uniforms are hanging in the closet

Overall, I was super pleased with the room - nice and spacious and awesome details...just great.

I headed back to class and ended up just missing Trevor - he texted me that he saw me enter the classroom right as he was coming down the escalator. Nice timing! Trevor got to the room and had bell services bring the bags - definitely one of our better experiences with bell services, as they brought the bags pretty quickly (which has not always been our experience...) And still wary over our experience at Art of Animation, Trevor asked if they'd pick up our bags on the last day and they said yes. So yay!

Then he was laying down, resting a bit, and I ended up having a 45 minute break at 6, so I came back to the room and we chatted a bit. His plan? Hollywood Studios and Star Wars land. My plan? Dinner at Epcot and then private fireworks viewing!!! Yay!

 

[Araminta18]

Reading along and enjoying! I'm impressed with what you got done that day as it otherwise seemed pretty relaxed!

It felt pretty relaxed too! I think those are the best days - you get lots done but still feels relaxed.

Shocked, really.

Your pictures turned out well, though!

Your lunch looked very tasty! I don’t think I’ll have a chance to visit Steakhouse 71 anytime soon, but I’d love to try it sometime!


Yikes! I’m so glad you found it (and so quickly!).

Looks like you had a great start to your class and Trevor had fun at MK. I’m glad the monorail ride timed so well with the afternoon rain shower!

LOL Thanks! And yes - if you ever get the chance, definitely try Steakhouse 71.
Me too - got super lucky finding the magic band so quickly, esp cause it was one of the expensive MagicBand+s.
Trevor was glad about the monorail timing too - it really was a great day.

 

[Araminta18]

Dinner at Epcot - Monday, August 14, 2023 (part 9)​

Ok! Break over, I headed back to class for our "networking" dinner and Trevor headed off to Hollywood Studios. On his way, he found a theme park bunny!

Fancy bunny, staying at the Contemporary.

Back at class, this first day it went until about 10 pm because we were doing a "networking" dinner and then fireworks!! So we hopped on a bus and drove over to Epcot. We got to go backstage and drive around the back of World Showcase (which guys - the pavilions are SO CLOSE together. I mean, I knew that, but seeing it backstage was just like...wow. They are so close, and yet that walk onstage is sooooo long.), and then got off backstage near the Skyliner. We entered Epcot through International Gateway and then walked all past England and Canada - I thought we were going to that one pavilion there by Canada but we kept going.

Monorail!

Then we finally arrived at our destination - Coral Reef!

Or not...rather, we headed up a staircase and into the Living Seas Salon! It's this little are that they'd set up with tables and a buffet, and there were these huge windows right into the aquarium.

So cool!

They also had a clear/transparent grand piano, which I kind of really wanted to play, but still cool to look at.

Anyways, but back to the important stuff - the food!

I loved that Mickey butter. On the left, it was Mahi Escabeche Salad with Olives, Capers, and Cilantro. On the right side there was crackers and focaccia, and then tomato and asparagus with sherry vinaigrette.


Rosemary Olive Oil Roasted Chicken Breast with Capers and Green Olives


Red Wine Braised Beef Short Ribs and Fried Onion Streusel

And desserts!

Nemo's Orange Cream Parfaits

Crush's Turtle Tarts

There was also an open bar but I don't drink so I didn't really pay attention to that. The food was all really good too, though I mostly had fun watching the aquarium.